Knickerbocker Blog

Changing of the guard; Business leaders in New York change with the political climate by picking a Brooklyn Democrat to lead an influential lobby (Kevin Harlin/Albany Times Union)

With a gubernatorial election little more than a month away, New Yorkers are gearing up for a major shift in the political landscape.

More quietly, New York's businesses are preparing for their own shift.

At its annual meeting Sept. 20, the Business Council of New York State elected a successor to Daniel B. Walsh, 71, who is stepping down at the end of the year after 19 years heading the state's largest business lobby.

Kenneth Adams, the 46-year-old president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, will inherit the job of continuing to turn around New York's anti-business image.

The appointment of the downstate business official--a registered Democrat, no less--is in part a knock at the organization's reputation as an upstate body. It also hints at a business lobbying group gearing up for influence with the next governor, whom many presume will be Democrat Eliot Spitzer.

There's much more.

Drug rehabilitation clinic fined $16.5 million for Medicaid fraud (Mark Johnson/Associated Press)

A Queens drug rehabilitation clinic was fined $16.5 million for cheating the state's Medicaid system, Gov. George Pataki's office said Sunday. The fine is the biggest ever by the state Medicaid Inspector General and the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.

Pataki's office also said it was stopping another $30 million in payments to Community Related Services Inc., a provider of outpatient treatment.

The state charged the business with more than 45 regulatory violations and 25 cases of Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse over a number of years. OASAS will revoke the clinic's operating certificate.

Fraud in the state's $44.5 billion health care program for the poor costs taxpayers perhaps billions of dollars a year, according to state officials, though the state has no reliable estimate.

Officials: Plan needed for W. Utica site (Utica Observer-Dispatch)

If the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center in West Utica is not selected as the site for the new state data center, elected state officials say it still needs a tangible reuse plan.

Money for demolition and construction needs to be established to improve the site, which many consider an eyesore, state Sen. Raymond Meier, R-Western, said.

"I'm going to insist that if it turns out some other place is the final site, that at the same time we have to have a very concrete plan with community resources to do something about the old psych center site in West Utica," Meier said.

Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, said the data processing center would fit well at the psychiatric center campus but realizes the state wanted options and is considering SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome. The state needs to be committed to improving the West Utica site, she said.

Data center would monitor 27 agencies; Staffing, other details for site not determined (Utica Observer-Dispatch)

SUNY IT sees academic merit in data center (Utica Observer-Dispatch)

Gas pipeline tries again for tax breaks; Earlier proposal rejected by Tioga County (Debbie Swartz/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Millennium Pipeline officials are trying again to get millions of dollars in tax breaks from Broome and Delaware counties, a county planning official said.

Delaware County Planning Director Glenn Nealis said the county was approached by Millennium last week to discuss the possibility of coming forward with the same tax break proposal it submitted in March.

The proposal involves a 15-year tax break in which Millennium would pay 25 percent of the normal property taxes the first five years, 50 percent the next five and 75 percent the last five years.

After 15 years, Millennium would pay full taxes on its natural gas pipeline, which is expected to run from Corning to Ramapo, in Rockland County, and would travel through Tioga, Broome and Delaware counties.

The March deal was approved by Broome and Delaware counties, but fell through when Tioga County Industrial Development officials unanimously opposed the tax break.

There's more.

Region's outlook on the table (Utica Observer-Dispatch)

A new approach to shaping the future will be attempted beginning this week in Herkimer County when Convention for the Future events take place in Herkimer, Dolgeville and Poland.

Tim Trent, a volunteer and spokesman for Breakthrough Central New York, is behind the effort bringing the events to Oneida and Herkimer counties.

"The conventions are opportunities for people to be heard on their thoughts and aspirations for their communities and our region and to make them what they want to become," Trent said.

More on New York City and the nanny-statism

Trans fats are bad for you, but so are anti-choice laws (editorial/Troy Record)

There's an old North Country expression for those in denial about the effects of what they put in their mouths: "If God didn't want you to eat fat and salt, he wouldn't have made it taste so good."

. . . .

[Trans fats] have been proven to promote the clogging of arteries with cholesterol, thus promoting heart disease.

New York City is considering a law, which will be voted on by city officials this fall, to ban the use of trans fats in every one of the thousands of restaurants in the five boroughs. Although this legislation might be noble in its quest for a healthier population, we have to ask: When will government stop trying to legislate personal choice?

Unlike the public smoking ban, which affects the health of others as well as the smoker and is easily enforced, a law against trans fat use is not easily enforced and takes away individual choice.

As we have stated many times, most people don't go to fast-food restaurants seeking healthy meals, nor are they overly concerned about the nutrition content of a Big Mac. If McDonald's wants to continue using trans fat for their French fries, isn't it up to the consumer whether or not he wants to eat them?

It's time to get real with some of these laws from the standpoint of freedom of choice and from the standpoint of enforcement.

Frieden chews the fat (editorial/Daily News)

. . . the food industry is addicted to trans fats because they make for efficiency: They keep for a long time before going bad. The Food and Drug Administration, the agency most responsible for regulating trans fats, has required disclosure of trans fat content on food packaging. In response, and facing lawsuits, major manufacturers ditched the gunk. Oreos, for example, are now trans fat-free.

But should New York step ahead of national regulations and impose a prohibition on a critical local industry, from McDonald's to top restaurants? Frieden says the impact would be minimal--healthier materials are readily available at comparable prices. He also says food would taste as good without trans fats, which came into use less than a decade ago without anyone noticing a big change.

Those claims must be fully tested before the Board of Health orders such a sweeping change in the city's food industry. While 9,000 city restaurants use no artificial trans fat, the New York State Restaurant Association, which represents about 3,500 city eateries, opposes a full ban. But the association has yet to make a persuasive case that switching would be onerous; nor have big food corporations. For example, McDonald's said that it "will closely examine" the proposal.

More on New York City and the nanny-statism

Trans fats are bad for you, but so are anti-choice laws (editorial/Troy Record)

There's an old North Country expression for those in denial about the effects of what they put in their mouths: "If God didn't want you to eat fat and salt, he wouldn't have made it taste so good."

. . . .

[Trans fats] have been proven to promote the clogging of arteries with cholesterol, thus promoting heart disease.

New York City is considering a law, which will be voted on by city officials this fall, to ban the use of trans fats in every one of the thousands of restaurants in the five boroughs. Although this legislation might be noble in its quest for a healthier population, we have to ask: When will government stop trying to legislate personal choice?

Unlike the public smoking ban, which affects the health of others as well as the smoker and is easily enforced, a law against trans fat use is not easily enforced and takes away individual choice.

As we have stated many times, most people don't go to fast-food restaurants seeking healthy meals, nor are they overly concerned about the nutrition content of a Big Mac. If McDonald's wants to continue using trans fat for their French fries, isn't it up to the consumer whether or not he wants to eat them?

It's time to get real with some of these laws from the standpoint of freedom of choice and from the standpoint of enforcement.

Frieden chews the fat (editorial/Daily News)

. . . the food industry is addicted to trans fats because they make for efficiency: They keep for a long time before going bad. The Food and Drug Administration, the agency most responsible for regulating trans fats, has required disclosure of trans fat content on food packaging. In response, and facing lawsuits, major manufacturers ditched the gunk. Oreos, for example, are now trans fat-free.

But should New York step ahead of national regulations and impose a prohibition on a critical local industry, from McDonald's to top restaurants? Frieden says the impact would be minimal--healthier materials are readily available at comparable prices. He also says food would taste as good without trans fats, which came into use less than a decade ago without anyone noticing a big change.

Those claims must be fully tested before the Board of Health orders such a sweeping change in the city's food industry. While 9,000 city restaurants use no artificial trans fat, the New York State Restaurant Association, which represents about 3,500 city eateries, opposes a full ban. But the association has yet to make a persuasive case that switching would be onerous; nor have big food corporations. For example, McDonald's said that it "will closely examine" the proposal.

Sad but true: In litigious society, even good intentions can go bad (editorial/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

It says something about the state of our society--not a good thing, unfortunately--that the local public broadcasting station has been advised by its attorney not to accept certificates for free massages and other professional services as donations for the biannual auction fundraisers.

Frank A. Nemia, the lawyer for WSKG, explained that if a customer were to sue a service provider, the station could also be liable. "Everybody is looking for that person they can sue. All we need is one substantial lawsuit to bankrupt us," Nemia said. "Even if we won the lawsuit, we're going to be pulled into it. It's going to cost us. We have a litigious society and we've got to ... take precautions."

We do indeed have a litigious society, one in which it sometimes seems any accident or misfortune is cause for action. It's not that all Americans seek somebody to blame, but enough of them do to make even goodwill gestures risky.

Pat Collins, chairperson of the Southern Tier unit of the American Massage Therapy Association and a licensed massage therapist in Johnson City, said she is disappointed but accepted WSKG's rationale. "It's indicative of a much larger problem," Collins said. "As much as I hate to say it, I understand (WSKG's) problem."

City still needs tight budgets; Hopeful sign in short-term borrowing doesn't eliminate long-term concerns (editorial/Buffalo News)

Buffalo's short-term borrowing has hit a six-year low. That's a good step, but with state handouts still a major factor in the city's budget there's a lot of work to do before Buffalo's finances are truly stable.

Buffalo's control board, working with city Comptroller Andrew A. SanFilippo, borrowed $60 million to meet day-to-day costs. That's a lot, but only half of the $120 million the city borrowed in 2003. Buffalo borrowed $84 million in 2004 and $90 million last fall.

The trend is hopeful, for a city challenged by declining population and a limited constitutional ability to raise property taxes beyond what they already are. But this is far from recovery. The city still needs the control board and the tough oversight it has had the guts to provide, and it's too soon to consider lifting the wage freeze.

. . . .

Dependence on state aid to balance budgets was a major trigger for the current fiscal crisis, but it also means the city itself is able to borrow less. While the extra money delivered by Albany helps balance the budget, City Hall still decided to spend 9 percent more on city operations and 7 percent more year over year on the school district, a rate two to three times the rate of inflation, in part because of increased employee benefit costs and higher prices for fuel and utilities. Buffalo's fiscal health is getting a little better, but it's still under a lot of strain.

Residents make push to dissolve Windsor; More than 200 sign petition on village (Liz Hacken/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

The Village of Windsor could be the first Broome County community to formally consider dissolution.

A group of village residents got more than 200 signatures and hopes to collect more before submitting the petitions at Monday's village board meeting.

"We talked about it for a long time. The petition announcement by the county executive (Barbara J. Fiala) was motivation to get it going," said Patricia Lee, a former village mayor from 1994 to 1996 who was one of several residents collecting signatures.

Residents needed to collect signatures from one-third of the village's 519 registered voters, or 171 voters, and file those petitions with the village clerk. Several residents went door to door to collect support but did not push anyone to sign, she said.

"If anyone said no, it wasn't worth debating," Lee said.

Once the petitions are filed, the village board must then appoint a committee made up of village and town residents to formulate a plan for how the village can incorporate its services into the town. The decision whether to dissolve ultimately rests on a referendum in which village voters decide.

$7 million sought by fire companies (Thomas J. Dolan/Buffalo News)

Amherst's volunteer fire companies are asking the town for more than $7 million in operating funds for next year--an increase of about 10 percent over this year's spending level.

At the same time, fire companies in some Amherst fire districts have built up surplus funds of more than $1 million, and some town officials are asking how much, and why. "We must be accountable," Supervisor Satish B. Mohan told fire officials last week.

So far, officials in six of the 10 districts have avoided or failed to report to Mohan about the size of their surpluses, which they refer to as fund balances.

"Nobody has said no, so far. They have said we will send them to you," Mohan said.

Town of Ithaca budget shows growth (Jennie Daley/Ithaca Journal)

Town Supervisor Cathy Valentino announced a tentative budget for 2007 on Thursday that showed new growth fueling a modest tax levy increase and a projected refund for lighting-district residents.

While the levy, which is the amount of money collected from property taxes, went up 2.1 percent to $1,749,283, the tax rate remained constant at $1.68 per $1,000 of assessed home value.

As this is the first year in seven that Tompkins County has not held annual assessment evaluations, the majority of homeowners in the Town of Ithaca should see a tax bill similar to 2006. Since the switch back to three-year assessment, property value adjustments have been reserved primarily for properties that sold or undertook improvements.

The town's 2007 budget proposal maintains all of the town's services, including paying 100 percent of employees' health care, and bumps two employees from part-time to full-time.

Just another scheme?

From a letter in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin:

For as long as I can remember, the residents of this community have been searching for tax relief from their local governments, and leader after leader, great plan after great plan, taxes continue to rise, year after year.

Now the latest "cut tax quick scheme" is to dissolve the very communities that have helped put the area on the map in the past (this will attract businesses?).

Thus far we have no statement of savings, no list of agencies or jobs that will be eliminated, no direct link whatsoever that shows what they are doing will reduce taxes. . . .

If we are going to start dissolving government bureaucracies, let's start with the one that seeks to grow the most under this plan, the Town of Union.

Bigger bills under Troy budget; State aid eases pain in mayor's proposed plan, which would cost average homeowner $100 more per year (Tim O'Brien/Albany Times Union)

Under Mayor Harry Tutunjian's proposed budget, the average homeowner will pay $100 more to the city next year.

While property taxes for the average home will go up $30, the city also is raising water and sewer rates that would add another $70 to that bill.

Tutunjian unveiled the spending plan Thursday at City Hall.

The city's $57 million budget will increase by $3.9 million, but only $367,000 of that will be covered by the 2.45 percent tax hike. Most of the other revenue will come from an increase of some $2 million in state aid, Tutunjian said.

The city also is forecasting a rise in sales tax that would add more than $100,000 to its coffers.

"Conservative budgeting has enabled us to absorb those increases," Tutunjian said. "We are working hard to keep the burden off our taxpayers."

Budget carries 2.75% tax increase; Bethlehem officials manage to keep spending down; townwide reassessment affects bills (Marc Parry/Albany Times Union)

Supervisor Theresa Egan on Wednesday rolled out a budget for next year that would raise the tax levy 2.75 percent while basically holding the line on spending.

Bethlehem residents shouldered a 2.84 percent tax hike under the 2006 budget, a figure reduced from the original proposal of 5 percent.

Under the proposed 2007 spending plan, expenditures would increase 0.27 percent, from $36,444,000 to $36,541,000.

"I think we are providing the best services possible at the best dollar," Egan said.

The budget focuses on shrinking general and highway fund deficits. The combined gap would narrow to about $717,000 under the proposed spending plan, down from about $1.2 million in 2006.

The town has been drawing on prior surpluses to cover those deficits and will do the same in 2007.

$1 million, 21,000 parking tickets later, question remains: Did the blitz work?/ Residents and businesses differ on impact, but some like heightened police visibility (Patrick Lakamp/Buffalo News)

Within three months, thousands of drivers from 539 communities in 20 states faced more than $1 million in fines and late fees for illegally parking in Buffalo.

So did it work?

The ticketing certainly brought in a lot of money to City Hall--but at what cost to merchants who lost business? And did life improve in city neighborhoods?

To those who suspect the ticketing was a way for the police union to show its unhappiness with a wage freeze, it probably hurt the union's cause in the eyes of residents.

. . . .

Even as some question whether the crackdown was a good use of police resources, others appreciated the heightened police visibility.

There's much more.

Reassessment policies vary in towns across CNY; Sometimes making changes in assessments can result in taxpayer revolt (John Doherty/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Manlius Assessor Pat Duffy changed the value of nearly every property in town this year. When taxpayers challenged those new assessments, very few were readjusted.

The story was very different in Cicero, where Assessor Keith Pitman revalued few properties, but many of the ones he changed failed to withstand taxpayer scrutiny.

Even though the two towns each has about 14,000 properties, the way each approaches evaluating them is vastly different.

That wide range is evident all around Onondaga County, a Post-Standard survey of all 19 towns shows.

The survey found assessors in seven towns revalued at least half of their town's properties this year. In nine towns, less than 10 percent of the properties were reassessed.

The survey also showed taxpayers in Cicero, Geddes and Spafford stood the best chance of having their assessor's values readjusted.

An assessment increase does not necessarily result in a tax increase. It does however, determine how large a slice of the tax pie someone pays. The more accurate assessment rolls are, the fairer tax bills should be, state tax officials say. Assessing is more opinion than science, said Theresa Frank, of the state Office of Real Property Services in Syracuse.

Several factors come into play, including the experience of the local assessor, the expertise of the local assessment review board and a town board's commitment to maintaining up-to-date assessment rolls.

There's much more.

The county budget does not lie (editorial/Jamestown Post-Journal)

Chautauqua County Executive Greg Edwards may spin his proposal for next year's multi-megadollar budget any which way he wants, but the facts don't change:

Edwards proposes increasing county government spending by 5.1 percent to a record level of $206 million. That is nearly $10 million more than county government is spending this year.

To help pay for this huge increase, property owners will be billed $56 million in taxes --a 4.2 percent jump over this year's county property tax bills.

His spin:

"This budget stabilizes the tax structure by offering property tax and sales tax reductions...," he wrote in his message to the legislature.

He calls it a step in the right direction of "reducing the burden on our property owners..."

No.

The budget he proposes increases the amount of money being taken from property owners and expands government spending.

. . . .

In short, the increased amount of money the county is raising from property taxes will come primarily from owners of existing homes and businesses whose assessments have been increased. No spin in the world can turn that into a tax reduction nor is it in any way a stabilization of the tax structure.

We credit Edwards for wanting to make investments in the county's infrastructure, for reducing the deficit at the county home, and for refusing to use one-time gimmicks to balance the budget. We can only wish, however, that he would go one step further in open and honest governing by speaking the flatout truth about growth of property taxes and the growth of county spending.

Webster nears budget vote; Town tax on property would rise 14 cents per $1,000 value (Bennett Loudon/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

The Webster Town Board is expected to adopt an $18.7 million 2007 budget on Thursday that is 4.75 percent higher than this year's spending plan.

The new budget raises spending by $848,288 over the current budget.

"The crux of that is employee raises, health-care costs, retirement costs, gasoline, diesel, electric costs," said Supervisor Ronald Nesbitt.

Except for a $5,000 grant to the Webster Museum to help pay for roof repairs, "there's nothing in the budget as far as any new employees or new, enhanced services in any way, shape or form," Nesbitt said.

Under the new budget, the tax rate for town residents outside the village of Webster would be $4.30 per $1,000 of assessed value, a 14-cent (3.48 percent) increase.

Under the proposal, the owner of home assessed at $150,000 would pay $645 in town property tax.

Village residents would pay $3.84 per $1,000, a 14-cent (3.82 percent) increase. The owner of a $150,000 home in the village would pay $576.

The tentative tax levy is $10.9 million, a 5.5 percent increase.

Broome health costs mount; Fiala says increases weigh on budget (Liz Hacken/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Health care costs are becoming more burdensome for Broome County.

Medical benefits for current and retired Broome County employees and Medicaid-related increases will dominate County Executive Barbara J. Fiala's 2007 budget proposal, she said Friday.

In her proposed spending plan to be unveiled Monday, Fiala said health insurance for county employees will surpass the county's costs for Medicaid. Medicaid takes up about $34 million of the current budget, or 11 percent of the $310 million spending plan approved by legislators last year.

In response to the major health care cost increase, Fiala said the county is considering how to modify its health insurance coverage to reduce taxpayer burden. Part of this could be reviving a proposal where county retirees pay 15 percent of their health insurance benefits, a plan that failed last year; retirees now contribute only 10 percent.

Fiala: Veto will avert burden on taxpayers; Broome leader rejects split of tobacco money (Liz Hacken/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Broome County Executive Barbara J. Fiala says her decision to veto the recently approved split of the county's tobacco settlement check was a matter of conscience.

"We should not be turning this windfall into a taxpayer burden," she said late Friday when she announced the veto.

Splitting the $17.1 million settlement among two projects--the George R. Harvey Justice Building and Broome Community College's communications technology building--would saddle taxpayers with $800,000 per year for 30 years to repay the debt, she said.

On Friday, Fiala also reintroduced a measure to spend the entire tobacco settlement on refurbishing the Harvey building into office space for the district attorney, probation and public defender. She said the Harvey building project itself, with a $16.8 million price tag, could easily be funded completely with tobacco money and save the county $500,000 annually in rent for those three offices.

The county legislature would need 12 votes to override Fiala's veto, and that vote could come at an Oct. 19 meeting.

Pirro's budget cut by $4.4M; Public gets its chance to speak on Onondaga County's spending plan Wednesday. (John Mariani/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Onondaga County legislators proposed trimming about $4.4 million from County Executive Nicholas Pirro's $1.12 billion tentative 2007 budget on Friday.

The alterations, if they hold up, would cut property taxes on the average $100,000 home another $12 on top of the $35 tax savings proposed in Pirro's version. County taxes would fall in Syracuse and 14 of the county's 19 towns and would rise less sharply in Cicero, Clay, Spafford, Tully and Van Buren.

Residents will get their say on the proposed budget at a public hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Legislature chambers at the County Courthouse.

However, the Legislature can alter the document before and after the hearing, up until the budget vote scheduled for Oct. 10.

Jennings' budget maintains tax levels; 2007 operating costs will rise by $8.2 million, but [the city of Albany] expects state to make up difference (Carol DeMare/Albany Times Union)

Mayor Jerry Jennings unveiled a $153 million 2007 budget Friday that holds the line on property taxes and includes an increase in payments from the state in lieu of taxes.

The proposed budget increases operating expenses by 5.7 percent or $8.2 million over the 2006 budget of $143 million. That budget carried a 4.3 percent property tax hike.

Despite no tax increase next year, the new spending plan will keep the city work force of 1,450--including police and firefighters--at its current size, and services will remain at their current level, Jennings said at a morning news conference in City Hall.

The additional $8.2 million for next year is earmarked to cover employee salary hikes, as well as additional payments on debt service and a rise in retirement contributions.

Jennings, when asked, said the city was "looking at" a city reassessment, but noted it doesn't mean a tax increase.

Properties haven't been reassessed in five years, the mayor added, suggesting it's a good practice to conduct a reassessment every five years.

Colonie faces budget hike; Town unveils spending plan saddled by new county election tax (Jordan Carleo-Evangelist/Albany Times Union)

Residents will face a 29 percent tax rate increase next year under the $80.6 million proposed budget town leaders unveiled Friday.

The rate increase--a compilation of three town tax rates--would cost the owner of a home valued at $200,000 about $132 more a year.

The news comes just a month after the town's two largest school districts informed residents their tax rates would rise much more than anticipated.

But town officials, including Supervisor Mary Brizzell, insisted that mandated expenses--and other forces the town has little or no control over--make up a large share of the nearly $4 million increase in spending.

Bold move in Windsor; Village takes the lead on dissolution discussion (editorial/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

Windsor residents are boldly going where no Tier village has gone before. On Monday, they will present a petition at the village board meeting stating that they want to start the process of dissolution.

Residents were motivated by Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala's recent efforts to educate the public on how such a process can be started. "We talked about it for a long time," former village mayor Patricia Lee said. And that was just Fiala's point. Years of talk have produced no action. Until now.

Windsor has 519 registered voters, so residents needed to get just 171 of them to sign the petition (one third). To date, there are more than 200 signatures and residents hope to have even more by the time they present the petition at the board meeting.

. . . .

Broome County has 16 towns, seven villages and one city. All residents have at least two layers of government; some have three. Streamlining government, services and even eventually school districts is critical to this valley's economic survival.

Congratulations to Village of Windsor residents for being brave enough to take that important first step: discussion. This does not mean that the village will automatically be dissolved. A plan must be drawn up and voters will ultimately decide if it makes sense.

Candidates for governor talk of issues, nation, life (From the Associated Press's continuing series of Q&A exchanges with the candidates for Governor)

Is a lack of funding the biggest problem with public education? If not, what is?

Faso: "The biggest problem is that the needs of children are often secondary to the desires of school bureaucracies and unions. The problem with education funding is not how much money is spent, but how that money is spent. We need more equity in formula distribution of education aid to high-needs districts, and reforms to ensure transparency and accountability."

Spitzer: "Adequate funding, along with real reform and accountability, is part of the solution to providing high quality education for our children. Without genuine accountability from teachers, parents and administrators, money alone cannot solve this critical problem."

And: The head of the state's powerful teachers' union restates the myth that low test scores inevitably mean inadequate funding.

The test results in Utica and elsewhere clearly demonstrate that there continues to be a high correlation between income and achievement.

No, they don't show that at all. They show that well-funded schools often outperform others, but not that the funding causes that difference. In fact, the presence throughout the state of high-achievement schools with relatively little funding suggests that good funding isn't necessarily the cause of good results. And the big picture in New York also suggests a disconnect between funding and results: New York State has the nation's second-highest per-pupil spending, but its overall academic performance is not nearly that close to the top of the pack. Do New York taxpayers want to continue to spend like the New York Yankees and get results like the New York Knicks?

A bit more nuance: This editorial in the Utica Observer-Dispatch argues for reform to the state's school-aid funding formula as one way to improve test scores.

Lower test scores and poor school districts usually go together. Current aid distribution is more likely to benefit wealthier downstate suburbs rather than poor urban districts. That means our poorest children are deprived of aid that could improve their school experience. This is a dismal failure of our state leaders.

And: The Buffalo News reflects on a recent court decision that upheld the city of Buffalo's teachers' wage freeze.

The loss of raises for nearly 21/2 years has to feel punitive to union members who did nothing more than negotiate the best contracts they could. It's not their fault that Buffalo's leaders signed off on deals that dug the city into a hole. Feelings aside, though, the freeze isn't about punishment, it's about arithmetic.

Consider: Earlier this year the city reported a $39.2 million surplus. On closer inspection, it becomes plain that the surplus was possible only because of the wage freeze and the control board's ability to borrow almost $27 million on the city's behalf. Without those influences, the city would have posted a deep deficit.

. . . .

With that background, public-sector unions choose to protest their lack of wage increases, increases they rightfully believe they negotiated. But the state-appointed control board froze those increases, and that action now has been upheld by two courts. Even if the unions waste their members' money by appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, that court easily can refuse to hear this case and, if it does, it is unlikely to find the serious error needed to overturn it. There is nothing wrong with the lower court decisions.

The unions have played out this tactic. They have other possible tactics to go to--pressure on state legislators who recently caved to unions in passing an outrageous billion-dollar package of benefits, for example, although those lawmakers can't undercut the control board they approved without looking even more self-serving and spineless.

The Buffalo News also points out that while a federal appeals court upheld the decision to freeze teachers' wages, the teachers' union says its considering appealing to the Supreme Court.

Create IG for schools; Recommendation by Suffolk grand jury is worth pursuing in Albany (editorial/Newsday)

In the wake of several scandals, faith in the fiscal skills of school officials is as low as taxes for education are high. To reassure taxpayers and restrain spending, Albany lawmakers should support Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota's call for a state inspector general for education.

Normally, this page is skeptical about creating another layer of bureaucracy when the state already has lots of watchdog agencies with real power. A number of reforms have been put in place. And despite a grand jury report alleging pervasive corruption and mismanagement, it's unclear how much is outright graft versus poor negotiations with powerful unions or unintentionally sloppy practices.

But this year we backed an inspector general for Medicaid, because monitoring this huge and complicated program required expertise and resources beyond those of any existing agency. And that's why we support an IG for education. It's a huge slice of the state's budget and of home owners' tax bills.

New York is no place to start up a small business (letter/Schenectady Gazette)

After serving in the Navy for 21 years, we decided to come back to our home state of New York. To supplement the Navy pension and improve our rural community, we decided to rebuild the old town grocery store (it was previously a 15-mile drive to the nearest store).

We invested our life's savings to start a small business. After one year, we are disheartened to realize that all of our hard work and revenue goes exclusively to the following:

Our local bank, with an interest rate that rose from 7 percent to 10 percent in our first year, plus fees;

Commercial insurance on our store and restaurant, which is extremely expensive, due to state mandates;

Electric company, which doubled our rate once we became a commercial property (plus an 8 percent state tax surcharge);

Fuel company, which also added state taxes now that we are a commercial property.

We have inquired with state agencies to obtain any sort of support, but grant money and business entitlements and incentives only go to entities that support larger businesses in the industrial park. My inquiries to the Empire Zone, the Small Business Development Center, and the Fulton County economic development offices resulted in a series of "sorries."

For small businesses in rural areas, there are no incentives--no reduction in utilities (we don't qualify, too small, too rural), no tax breaks (only additional taxes on our bills), no "start-up" grants; even the local telephone company charges for every call--local and long distance. And the State Liquor Authority actually sets up "stings" so as to trip up a small store owner and maybe cause them to lose their license or pay costly fines.

. . . .

We will continue as best we can to offer our services to the local community, with a gracious smile and the products they need. But if anyone out there in the world of government wonders why New York state loses business, read my letter. New York state is a sorry place to start up a small business.

Time to end railroad's tax breaks (editorial/Utica Observer-Dispatch)

The Oneida County Industrial Development Agency was correct on Thursday to send representatives of the New York Susquehanna Railroad back to work to craft an application that clearly answers why the business should merit $115,000 a year in tax breaks.

And unless the board gets compelling reasons for allowing the tax deal to continue, this application should be denied.

. . . .

* The New York Susquehanna has reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks over more than 20 years.

* This same railroad purports to be a good citizen by bringing economic opportunity to the area.

* But then the New York Susquehanna turns around and strikes a deal with New York Regional Interconnect. NYRI has options on the railroad's right-of-way which could be used to install a huge and landscape-defacing power line that would slice through the heart of many communities. This power line, which would send Upstate power Downstate, could raise utility rates substantially in an area that continues to struggle economically.

* Now to cap it all off, the railroad wants an extension on the tax breaks. Never mind that the company might harm the very citizens who have been paying part of the freight for the railroad's operation. . . .

To say this approach by the railroad is troubling is putting it mildly. The railroad has indeed helped with economic development over the years. The rail line is a marketing tool for the area when economic developers seek to lure potential businesses here, and it serves several firms that are already established.

But to extend a lucrative tax break to a railroad that seems all too willing to enter into a deal with a company whose mission is to build an ugly power line is unwise.

N.Y. politicians need to push for lower gas prices (letter/Elmira Star-Gazette)

I live in Raleigh, N.C. I was born and raised in Cameron, and my family still lives in the area.

As the price of crude oil drops, so have Raleigh's gas prices. Currently, they average $2.20 a gallon. How is it possible that New York has not kept up with the market value of crude oil with its gas prices? Steuben and surrounding counties are not a wealthy area. In fact, it is a hard-working area trying to keep jobs where layoffs and unemployment threaten every household everyday.

Why must tier pay more? (letter/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Why is it that three hours from here gas is 54 cents cheaper, and one hour from here is 42 cents cheaper?

This area's economy is declining, and people are moving out. I would like any politician to explain why we are being charged so much more.

Double-check those gas prices (editorial/Elmira Star-Gazette)

Pardon the crying towel here, but if gas prices can drop to around $2.25 a gallon in other parts of the nation, why are they still hovering around or above $2.50 a gallon in the Southern Tier of New York?

.. . . The disparity ought to be catching the eyes of state officials, especially Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

If it's not price gouging, then Spitzer's office ought to say it has investigated, found the prices to be fair and explain why. If it is price gouging, then the attorney general's staff should get aggressive and take legal action against the parties responsible.

Recent news gives a reason to believe (Donn Esmonde column/Buffalo News)

In this amusing column, Donn Esmonde of the Buffalo News envisions a conversation with an imaginary Buffalo old-timer in which Esmonde plays the role of the optimist on the region's future.

Call him Buffalo Joe. He is our fictional Everyman, our skeptic, the imaginary symbol of our broken dreams and unfulfilled promises. Years of disappointment broke his spirit, left him convinced that nothing good can happen around here. He isn't real, but his "show-me" attitude infects our communal psyche.

"Joe, good news," I offered. "We're turning the ship around."

He raised a weary eye and shook his head. "Right," he replied. "And the ship is called the Titanic."

I ignored the crack.

. . . .

"Joe, downtown housing is booming. Outside investors just paid millions for the tattered Statler and the vacant AM&A's. When was the last time we got out-of-town money in this town?"

He rolled his eyes, unimpressed.

"High taxes keep a boot heel on our necks," he said. "It scares off businesses, and no businesses mean no jobs. It won't change until Albany--the Santaland of frills and giveaways--changes its ways. What are the odds of hundreds of lobbyists and legislators finding religion?"

There's much more.

When it comes to the race for state comptroller, most of the media attention is (understandably) on the ethical questions involving incumbent Alan Hevesi. But it's worth noting that Republican challenger Christopher Callaghan is saying some important things about state policy issues.

Earlier this month, Callaghan called for changing New York's costly public-pension system to define-contribution retirement benefits, similar to 401-k plans. Currently, state and local retirees receive defined-benefit pensions that are more generous than those in most states, and for which public employees in New York contribute relatively little. Switching to defined-contribution plans would reduce costs for taxpayers and make pension costs more predictable for state and local officials.

Last Thursday, Callaghan took up the issue of retiree health-care costs. We pointed out recently that, for the state government alone, such costs may total $47 billion or more. Callaghan suggests New York's state and local governments follow the advice of public-finance experts and start putting dollars aside now for those future costs. It's a good idea, one worth discussion in this year's campaigns.

Rochester must pick up pace (Jim Lawrence column/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

In a recent column, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle editorial-page editor Jim Lawrence comments on readers' reactions to the paper's mid-September series of editorials called "Reworking Rochester." Lawrence notes that some readers' letters were disheartening in their lack of interest in the economic issues highlighted in the series of editorials.

We certainly appreciate the kind of loyalty that dozens of readers expressed in e-mails, phone calls and letters. But at the same time, many of them unknowingly underscored just how urgently this community needs to start moving to build a new economy. We hope that devoting three straight days to focusing on securing jobs for Rochester's future sent that message.

Too many single young people and families are leaving our community in search of economic opportunities. And too many others are sitting back, apparently convinced they can hold onto their jobs through retirement, though their employment circumstances could change overnight. Just ask the thousands laid off from long-held jobs in this region in recent years.

Meantime, parents and grandparents like myself are forced to be content with summer visits from our children and grandkids, if we're lucky, because jobs couldn't be found here. Our sputtering economy is breaking up families. As a community, we can do better.

The point that we endeavored to make last week was that it's imperative to begin capitalizing more on the region's assets to build a more robust economy. The quality of life here is high. There are great and improving schools, affordable housing and a desirable work force that includes innovative thinkers like those on today's Speaking Out page. New industries such as optics and alternative energy are also taking off. And those are just some of the region's pluses.

Count on us to help get the economy in this part of the state as fired up as it is around Albany and New York City.

In the weeks and months ahead, we'll keep prodding elected leaders, policymakers and the community in general. We'll continue pushing for many of the strategies contained in last week's special report. And we won't be shy about introducing new, meritorious ideas as we go along. . . . .

We want to know, for instance, what the candidates think of the idea of the next governor naming an upstate economy czar. This appointee would be given unprecedented authority to redirect economic development support to emerging businesses such as the ones on the Speaking Out page and startups spawned at local universities.

And: The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle also has a range of reader responses to its fine "Reworking Rochester" here.

Parting the curtains: The Legislature and the governor take a first step on member item disclosure (editorial/Albany Times Union)

The polite definition of members items goes like this: Funds--$200 million in all this year--doled out at the discretion of individual lawmakers, legislative leaders and the governor. The more accurate definition goes like this: Pork barrel items, paid for with taxpayer money, that legislators, their leaders and the governor use to curry favor with constituents.

One can argue with this process, and we have on numerous occasions. But there's no doubt that many member items are worthy ones. The money goes to civic and community groups, and cultural treasures like the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. And the money can be disbursed quickly, free of budgetary red tape.

But also there's no argument that some of these items aren't so worthy, with money going to cronies or family members. The trouble is, until recently, the process has been largely secretive. Taxpayers should know which legislator gave what to whom. This newspaper, joined by other news organizations, has taken Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, to court in an attempt to force full disclosure.

While that lawsuit has yet to be resolved, some progress has been made in recent weeks. Earlier this month, for example, the Assembly began listing on its Web site millions of dollars in member item allotments for 2006-07. More recently, the Senate and governor followed suit. . . .

But the disclosure is limited, to say the least. It doesn't include the names of the legislators sponsoring the member item. To his credit, Sen. Paterson describes the agreement as only a first step and says it is "shameful" that the sponsors' names remain anonymous.

Money talks--grants given in the dark (John Whittaker/Jamestown Post-Journal)

The state Senate is very, very good to Chautauqua County. Organizations ranging from Aspire of Western New York to the Underground Railroad Tableau project in Jamestown will all receive a bit of the Senate's $51 million in legislative initiative items--$818,000 for 41 projects in all, much of it requested by state Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean.

The state Assembly also qualifies as good for the county--totaling $135,000 for 11 projects from the Assembly's pot of gold that legislators can spend any way they want without answering to anyone. State Assemblyman William Parment, D-North Harmony, helped secure much of the Assembly money the county will receive.

None of the projects are listed in the state budget. No one oversees how or when the money is spent. And, it is usually paid with the government equivalent of a taxpayer-funded bank loan. Most of the time, no one knows which legislator asked for the money.

. . . .

One of the criticisms of legislative initiative spending is there is no name attached to the request. That isn't a problem in Chautauqua County, where spending requests are funneled through longtime--and well-known--legislators. Anonymity is a problem when it comes to groups who want to see if there are inequities in the way the money is distributed.

The information is available now on the Senate and Assembly Web sites, but require the time to scroll through thousands of pages of documents. There is also very little information about the projects, which makes it difficult for residents across the state to properly appreciate where and how the money is being spent.

Alesi's dealings suggest conflict; Company benefits even as he aids area schools

When state Sen. James Alesi gets $1.5million in taxpayer money for an information-technology lab for the Rochester Institute of Technology or $450,000 for the Nazareth College Arts Center, Alesi and the schools trumpet the news.

But they aren't as quick to talk about another side of the relationship: Alesi is president of a company that provides washing machines for dorms and other facilities at the two Rochester-area schools.

Alesi has obtained more than $11 million in public funds for RIT since 2001 and almost $2 million for Nazareth, according to school officials and school records. Neither Alesi nor RIT would say how much money Alesi's company, East Rochester-based Allstate Coin Laundries Inc., has earned on the washing-machine contracts.

Nazareth College spokeswoman Alicia Nestle said the Nazareth contract with Allstate is worth about $36,000 a year. She said the contract isn't bid out because "the college is extremely satisfied with Allstate's services and therefore continues to do business with them."

The schools aren't required to disclose the contracts because they are private institutions, and Alesi said he won't discuss them because he doesn't want to provide information for competitors.

. . . .

"There was absolutely no preferential treatment here," said RIT spokesman Robert Finnerty. "RIT has a stringent process working with vendors, and this was an extremely competitive bid that beat out multiple bids," he said. "We have a fiduciary responsibility with every purchase, and this process was done fair and square."

But he wouldn't say whether the bid by Alesi was the lowest received by the school, only that it was "the most competitive" when it was awarded in 2000. He also wouldn't say when the contract expires.

New York's buried treasurers (editorial/New York Times)

Sometimes New York State's $100 billion-plus budget seems a little like Albany's own Treasure Island. Dig here, excavate there, and--eureka--one discovers hundreds of millions in gold doubloons that the state's leaders channel to the home districts of favored legislators.

Under pressure, legislative leaders--the Senate's Joseph Bruno and the Assembly's Sheldon Silver--have begun providing a few details about these secret pools of slush, commonly known as member items. We now know who got some of these items. What we don't know is who gave them.

. . . .

Member items are another way for lawmakers to increase the advantages of incumbency. For the leadership, they are another weapon in their already overloaded arsenal of control. Lawmakers dare not rebel. But genuine needs go unmet--as Albany guards its treasure trove, and Gov. George Pataki, Mr. Bruno and Mr. Silver hoard the map.

A defense of pork-barrel spending: Sara Foss of the Schenectady Gazette defends pork-barrel spending in this piece in the Schenectady Gazette.

Each year, state legislators dole out millions of dollars to thousands of groups--an assortment of schools, sports clubs, religious organizations, fire departments and museums scattered throughout New York--by way of a mysterious process that is largely removed from the public eye.

But the recipients of pork--officially called member item grants--view the money as a blessing. They don't make any apologies for it.

"A lot of nonprofits need these types of grants to survive," said Don Rittner, historian for the city and county of Schenectady as well as a founder of New Netherland Routes, a nonprofit organization that will receive $25,000 in member item money from Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna. "For nonprofits, this is a very important shot in the arm. We don't have stockbrokers. We don't have a lot of ways to get money. Yes, it's the taxpayers' money, but when you look at the projects it goes toward, I don't really have a problem with it."

There's more, including details on several groups' taxpayer-funded grants and how they plan to spend them.

Without promised expansions, Pyramid collects millions; Congel, partners gather $9 million a year in tax breaks on malls in Syracuse, Watertown and Utica (Mike McAndrew/Syracuse Post-Standard)

The Pyramid Cos. warned Syracuse politicians in 2002 that without Empire Zone tax breaks it would not transform the Carousel Center mall into Destiny USA, a $1.7 billion resort.

In the four years since, not a single beam, block or two-by-four has been erected for Destiny USA.

Yet Pyramid founder Robert Congel and his partners are already claiming Empire Zone tax breaks worth $7 million per year.

The 40,000 new Destiny jobs Pyramid predicted don't exist. But New York taxpayers reimbursed Pyramid for its Carousel Center property taxes in 2004 and 2005.

And it can continue to claim these tax breaks through 2015.

Sixty-seven miles to the north, a similar scene is playing out.

Congel's son, Scott Congel, announced in 2003 that a Pyramid partnership was planning a $170 million expansion of its Watertown mall. The project would create 3,000 jobs, he predicted.

But Scott Congel told Watertown officials that before Pyramid could turn the Salmon Run Mall into an international tourist destination with a convention center, hotel, golf course and housing they had to put Salmon Run in an Empire Zone.

Today, the Salmon Run Mall looks essentially the same. There's no convention center. No hotel. No golf course.

"None of it took place," said Peter Clough, a Watertown councilman and chairman of the Watertown Empire Zone board.

Still, New York taxpayers are paying Congel and his partners at Salmon Run $1 million per year in zone benefits.

There's much more.

Retaining, growing business (op-ed/Syracuse Post-Standard)

I can understand these companies' actions, due to Sheldon Silver's poorly thought out legislation that Gov. George Pataki and Joseph Bruno went along with. Allowing an out-of-state company to come in and compete with local companies that are not receiving these large subsides is blatantly unfair.

Supporters of this legislation will say these are "new" businesses, but the list of out-of-state companies shows few are making products not already made here by someone else.

The problem is that the triumvirate that currently rules our state does not understand the three steps they should be doing for business in New York. They are concentrating their efforts on what should be Step Three.

Step One is to help maintain businesses already here. The key here is communication with these businesses, of all sizes. The state ombudsman's office should serve in this capacity. This should be an office to help businesses and forward their needs to the governor and state Legislature. It should be devoid of automated answering machines. Nothing is worse than spending 30 minutes going through menus without finding an answer.

. . . .

Step Two is to help existing businesses grow. This should be a separate section of the state's "business" office. This division would focus on issues growing businesses face, and coordinate with state and local planning, zoning and codes offices and utilities. Coordination should include all agencies that regulate land use in the state. Financial experts would provide advice and possible direction in getting the resources these projects would need.

Step Three is bringing in new business. This division would look for businesses that are expanding or looking to relocate, and match them with areas that meet their needs, or that can adapted to meet their needs. There should be a true statewide focus, not just a "cities" view.

Particular attention should go to the small Rust Belt of New York. Hundreds of little mill sites and the villages that grew up around them need to be revitalized. In many cases that could offer land for these businesses to build and grow on.

If our leaders worried half as much about this state's business as they do about re-election stunts like their STAR rebate checks, New York would surely he growing.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer recently has described his plans to reform New York's notorious Wicks Law, which inflates construction costs for school districts and localities by requiring them to use multiple contractors on projects valued at $50,000 or more. At The Business Council's Annual Meeting the week before last, for example, Spitzer outlined his plans and noted that it was supported by the state's association of school boards. From our story:

Spitzer also proposed changes to the Wicks Law, which drives up public construction costs by requiring multiple contractors on projects costing more than $50,000. He called for raising that threshold to $1 million outside New York City, and $2 million in the city. Such a step would exclude some 80 percent of construction projects now covered by Wicks, he said.

But this entry on a Daily News blog highlights an apparent discrepancy between the school boards' position on Wicks Law reform and Spitzer's assessment of that position.

Only, perhaps, the Daily News's Bill Hammond was paying close enough attention to this week's debate to catch Eliot Spitzer in a flat, if obscure, error, claiming the support of a group that has not endorsed a proposal.

At question, Hammond emails, is a plan to change the Wicks Law, an anti-corruption measure that requires government agencies to solicit four separate bids for most building projects, and makes them more expensive. For that reason, trade unions and some contractors like; nobody else does.

Spitzer's proposal would leave the law in place but lift the threshold for covered projects from $50,000 to $2 million in NYC and $1 million everywhere else. He says this would exempt 80% of the projects.

He touted this proposal during Tuesday's debate, saying it had been "endorsed" by the NYS School Boards Association, a leading proponent of Wicks reform.

But NYSSBA supports outright repeal and, as a compromise, has suggested setting the threshold at $10 million.

"We think the attorney general misspoke," NYSSBA spokesman David Ernst confirmed when asked about what Spitzer said. "The threshold we have advocated for is considerably higher. In order to produce real savings for a significant number of school districts, it would have to be, in our opinion, a higher threshold."

Ernst said the association has briefed the campaigns of both Spitzer and Faso on where it stands. "We're not sure where the confusion occurred."

Many women cannot cash tax rebate checks; State issued checks with name of husband, often listed as main owner (Associated Press)

Many women in New York are having to jump through hoops to cash their property tax refunds.

The state has been mailing out $675 million in rebates through the STAR, or School Tax Relief program, since Sept. 18. But many checks are made out to only one person in a household--usually the husband--because the state is relying on property deed records that sometimes are decades old.

Banks often will not allow a spouse or other property co-owner to get cash if their name isn't listed on the check. And that can create an even bigger headache when there are marital problems, or when a husband has died.

"It upsets any woman. It doesn't seem right," Carol Decker, a widow in Angola near Buffalo, said in Friday's Buffalo News. Although her husband died in 1994, both their names are listed on the deed.

In recent days, the newspaper said, tax assessors' offices have been flooded with complaints, and some consumers have been told the state didn't have room on the checks' payee line to put more than one name.

Gender tender (editorial/Buffalo News)

Maybe it's because they're so unpracticed in returning taxpayer money, but the gang in Albany has been having an unusually hard time sending out those STAR rebate checks that--just coincidentally, of course--arrive just before this year's elections.

First there was a recall because the accompanying material didn't properly credit the benefactors giving us back our own money. Now comes word of gender bias--because the list was generated off assessors' roles, many women can't cash the checks because only their husband's name is on them.

Maybe these folks should practice returning money more often. And not just right before elections.

Another Albany obscenity (editorial/New York Post)

Remember when Oprah gave everyone in her audience a free car--only to hear them howl in outrage once they realized they'd owe extra to the IRS that year?

That's not so different from what Albany just pulled on New York homeowners--minus the free car.

Tossing New Yorkers some paltry crumbs, Gov. Pataki and the Legislature coyly plotted to mail home "School Tax Relief" (STAR) rebate checks just as Election Day neared.

But there's a problem.

As Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker reported last week, the rebates will cause more than a million New Yorkers to owe more taxes. For those who itemize returns, these "rebates" are subject to city, state and federal taxes.

Not that the mailings will explain this. As a legislative staffer said, "It wasn't really something we wanted to have out there."

What they did want out there was a pat on their own backs for giving taxpayers some of their own money back. In fact, this was so important they actually stopped the printing presses (costing God-only-knows how much) when somebody noticed that the checks somehow neglected to mention Pataki and the Legislature.

Now, instead of knowing whom to thank, New York homeowners know whom to blame for their tax obligations climbing yet higher.

Yes, since Albany made the rebates so infinitesimal--$57 for Gothamites--the increased tax obligation is rather small. But the whole episode is still insulting.

STAR tax law flawed (letter/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Think tax rebates are to influence incumbent re-election? If that's true, why are rebates being sent to STAR recipients only?

I think the rebates are a cover-up of unfair taxing of STAR recipients caused by a poorly written law.

Rebates are legislative "feel-good" actions requiring minimal cost and no follow-up to correct poorly written laws. The state portrays tax increases as rising education cost, not unfair tax law, and most people believe laws protect them from unfair taxing.

Giveaway a waste (letter/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

I just received my school tax rebate, which they said I could use to help pay my school taxes. And some friends who are seniors like me got the same amount even though they do not owe any school taxes.

It will no doubt be welcome in those households and help pay their utility and gasoline bills, but it is obvious that this giveaway was the most ill-conceived and poorly implemented waste of taxpayer funds.

Our governor and state legislators blew the opportunity to use the budget surplus to reduce the state's enormous debt. Instead of being fiscally responsible, they decided to do what they do best. They squandered our money to make themselves look like heroes just before the election.

Tax relief for seniors (letter/Middletown Times Herald-Record)

. . . . Abatements are a very popular legal mechanism utilized by municipalities and school districts across New York state to attract businesses to a locality by offering property-tax reductions over a period of 10 years.

The time has arrived for seniors, who are homeowners of fixed and limited incomes, to be given tax abatements on the school taxes they are paying.

. . . .

Senior tax relief is needed now. Not later. Too many seniors in this area are forced to consider leaving the homes they raised their families in and worked so hard for. Now in the twilight of their lives, they could be enjoying life and being able to sit back, but they must move on because of the burden and unrealistic taxes.

No growth, no kidding; Gov. Pataki wants to leave his successor in sound financial shape, but will he? (editorial/Albany Times Union)

Gov. Pataki is determined to leave his successor in better fiscal shape than, he says, he found himself in 12 years ago when he was first elected. But his successor--be he Democrat Eliot Spitzer or Republican John Faso--may well consider Mr. Pataki a day late and, say, $3 billion short.

The $3 billion represents the red ink that the state will be facing in the next fiscal year, according to Budget Director John Cape. Actually, that's a conservative estimate. Some experts are predicting a two-year deficit of $12 billion.

. . . .

For all his good intentions, [Governor Pataki's budget director's] call for even deeper cuts--indeed, even the idea of a "no growth" budget at all--will likely be of little solace to the new governor. After all, Mr. Pataki had an opportunity to curb spending, and he squandered it. So his successor might ask why he waited until his final days to get serious about state finances.

Last spring, Mr. Pataki was talking tough to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, both of whom had added billions of dollars to the governor's budget proposal. And Mr. Pataki backed up his words by vetoing $2.9 billion that the Legislature added to his plan, including $1.9 billion that he claimed was unconstitutional and therefore beyond legislative override.

But the legislative leaders wouldn't back down. They insisted that the state, flush with a surplus of as much as $5 billion, could well afford the extra spending they had added to Mr. Pataki's budget. And in the end, the governor blinked, agreeing to restore almost all of the funds he had vetoed.

Now the bill is coming due, of course. It's no coincidence that the $3 billion deficit forecast by Mr. Cape is almost the same amount that the Legislature added to Mr. Pataki's budget. All of a sudden, the "no growth" favor that Mr. Pataki is intent on doing for his successor turns out to be not such a favor after all.

Reviving Upstate key for politicians (Yancey Roy/Gannett News Service)

In a long and compelling piece for the Gannett News Service, Yancey Roy notes that Upstate New York's economic travails have been especially noticeable in cities.

. . . downtown Elmira tells a different story. "Available" signs dot Water Street, along the Chemung River, hanging in stores closed long ago and just weeks ago. One mid-afternoon, just five of the 25 parking meters had customers--parking meters that give you 60 minutes for a quarter. Broken windows and peeling facades mark the corner around Lake Street.

As recently as 1998, manufacturing still accounted for more jobs in the area than any other sector. Now, it's fallen behind government and health care, and there are only four big manufacturers operating within the city limits.

Analysts talk of a "hollowed-out core" in upstate cities. It's not just Elmira. It's a scene replicated in Buffalo, Rochester and other locales.

"The struggles of the upstate economy are seen very starkly in the cities that were formerly examples of upstate swagger," said Matt Maguire, spokesman for the New York State Business Council.

. . . .

In a recent poll, concerns about taxes and jobs varied widely by region and, to no surprise, corresponded with the local economy. For instance, when asked "the greatest issue facing the state that a governor could do something about," 17 percent of Finger Lakes residents and 17 percent of Central New York residents said jobs. Only 9 percent of Lower Hudson Valley residents and 9 percent of New York City residents picked jobs. That dropped to 3 percent on Long Island.

Over the last three years, downstate has shaken off the recession and jobs grew by 2.8 percent, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute, a labor-backed think tank. But jobs in the 52 counties north and east of Putnam County grew by just 1.1 percent. The Binghamton, Elmira and Rochester metro areas lost jobs.

Perhaps more chilling, officials say, is the flight of young adults from the region. Since 1990, upstate lost about 25 percent of its population between 20 and 34. Most are lured away by better job prospects in other states. Maybe no single other statistic is as ominous for the future of the region, say politicians who frequently cite it on the campaign trail.

. . . .

. . . Spitzer and Republican foe John Faso have made New York's business climate their No. 1 issue. Cuts in income and property taxes, labor-law overhauls, improved transportation and better business ties with colleges and universities are just some of the ideas they are floating.

"Upstate needs significant tax cuts to improve the economy," said Faso, a former state assemblyman from Kinderhook, Columbia County.

Faso wants to cap school spending, as a way to limit property taxes, and eliminate state income taxes for married couples earning less than $50,000 and singles earning less than $25,000.

Spitzer wants more tie-ins with colleges. He too wants to cut property taxes. Both said they'd amend labor laws that drive up liability and workers' compensation costs.

Over the last decade, the state government's main line of attack for encouraging development has been the "Empire Zone" program, a designation that allows businesses to operate almost tax free in certain locations. Critics say it's produced just 50,000 jobs in nearly two decades while giving away hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks.

The program helped developer John Travers renovate and fill an office building in downtown Elmira overlooking the river--a structure that sat vacant for five years. But, he said, the approach is "just a Band-Aid."

"I couldn't have done it without the (Empire Zone)," said Travers, "but any E.Z. is an admission that we're taxed too high."

There's much more.

Candidates give their ideas on how to revive the Upstate economy (Utica Observer-Dispatch)

Democratic Candidate Eliot Spitzer

The decline of manufacturing over the last few decades has left upstate hemorrhaging jobs, people and its tax base.

From 1990 to 2004, upstate lost 33 percent of its manufacturing base, more than any other state. Since 1990, upstate lost 25 percent of its young people ages 20 to 34. This cannot continue. Revitalizing the upstate economy requires a coordinated and sustained effort. Our government should have no higher priority than standing up for New York State's economic future and making New York the best place to do business in America.

First, we must make business more competitive by improving New York State's business climate. Second, we must foster innovation and cultivate the growth of strategic industries and expand the research capacity at our colleges and universities in areas with direct commercial applications.

Third, we must revitalize our cities and downtowns to make them economically vibrant places to live and work. Fourth, we must implement a focused program to support small businesses. Fifth and finally, we must develop a transportation, energy and broadband Internet infrastructure that will create and support economic expansion. With dedicated leadership, New York will emerge as a state where ideas are born, companies are raised and jobs and careers thrive.

Republican Candidate John Faso

Upstate needs significant tax cuts to improve the economy. It is time to put the family budget ahead of the state budget.

I have laid out specific plans to cap the school property tax, reform state mandates that drive up costs, and consolidate non-educational functions. My plan doubles STAR exemptions, but unless we cap school tax increases and reform mandates, taxpayers will not benefit from just more STAR.

I also have presented a plan to cut the income tax 25 percent and eliminate the tax on capital gains and dividends. This will lead to more investment in New York state than ever before, and it will make our state less reliant on economic development programs that favor a few but are paid for by all taxpayers.

Upstate employers need comprehensive reform of the workers' compensation system, reform of contractor liability laws and insurance law reform to lower health insurance costs. These actions will help keep jobs here.

I have a 20-year record of supporting fiscally responsible tax and budget policies. I am also the only candidate that supports the Unshackle Upstate agenda that is sponsored by several upstate chambers of commerce and business organizations.

Faso uses Hevesi to bash away at Spitzer (Joe Spector/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

In recent days, the underdog Faso has tried to lump Spitzer and Hevesi into the same controversy, saying Hevesi should resign and arguing that Spitzer has been too complacent over Hevesi's misdeeds.

"He should tell Alan Hevesi to get off the ticket and resign," Faso said during a campaign stop at Springdale Farm in Ogden.

. . . .

What's drawn added fire from Faso is that Spitzer during their first debate Tuesday described Hevesi as a friend, "honest" and a good public servant.

Spitzer said he would have taken action against any staffer who did a similar thing, but credited Hevesi for acknowledging the problem and paying back the money.

Spitzer has not called for Hevesi's resignation, and a spokeswoman Friday said Spitzer's comments at the debate speak for itself.

. . . .

Faso contended that Spitzer would raise taxes if elected. Faso proposes that school tax increases should be capped at 4 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

He estimates the cap would save taxpayers $18 billion over six or seven years. But Faso would also double school tax relief benefit known as STAR over four years.

Faso says his plan is less expensive than Spitzer's, estimating Monroe County taxpayers would each save about $1,300 more a year under his. He said Spitzer hasn't given enough specifics on how to deal with the state's loss of jobs and flight of young people.

"All we get is cotton candy," he said. "All we get is fluff."

Spitzer has proposed a $6 billion property tax cut over three years, funded by $11 billion in budget cuts and reforms. He said his plan would provide middle-class taxpayers an 80 percent increase in STAR, but says school districts shouldn't be bound by a spending cap.

And: Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin takes a poke at Hevesi in this column.

Faso: Where was crusader Spitzer in Albany? (Mike Gormley/Associated Press)

Eliot Spitzer has driven Wall Street to reform and corporate icons to resignation, and he has made companies pay billions of dollars in restitution to investors, consumers and governments.

But have his political allies, as his Republican challenger for governor John Faso asserts, gotten a more free ride in Albany, where there is no shortage of misconduct allegations? Is there, as Faso says, "One standard for Spitzer and his friends and another for everyone else?"

Consider:

-Last week, Spitzer supported his friend and ally, Democratic state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who used a state employee as a chauffeur for his ailing wife. Spitzer called Hevesi "honest" and a good public servant, although Spitzer said he would have severely dealt with an employee who did the same. Spitzer would have been able to pursue a civil case, but Hevesi rendered that moot by agreeing to reimburse the state for $80,000.

"But this is his own accounting," objected Faso spokeswoman Susan Del Percio. "It could be more ... where is the investigation to confirm this?"

-Spitzer has not targeted a longtime Democratic ally, H. Carl McCall, in his investigation of the New York Stock Exchange over a $200 million compensation package for ex-chief Richard Grasso. McCall had been chairman of the board's compensation committee.

-Spitzer also hasn't forced a Democratic assemblywoman to pay $18,000 he said she owes the state Lottery Division.

-The state's largest teachers' union, a strong Spitzer supporter this year, paid a $100,000 fine for steering a retirement plan of questionable performance to its members and accepting a $3 million payment for it.

. . . .

But Attorney General's Office spokesman Darren Dopp said Friday the sound bites criticizing Spitzer's involvement in those cases don't hold up to a longer look. For example, evidence doesn't warrant prosecution of McCall for his actions with the stock exchange board.

"We drew the line, and Mr. Spitzer, in particular, drew the line here on who was deceived and who is doing deceiving," Dopp said.

There's more.

More politics

Pataki's Last 100 Days Could Yet Produce Surprises in Albany (Jacob Gershman/New York Sun)

While many in the Legislature anticipate that Albany won't break out of its holding pattern until the next governor takes over January 1, some also see a convergence of an array of unresolved issues that could result in some 11thhour political drama.

"Clearly there are priorities that haven't been addressed in the legislative session," a spokesman for the governor, David Catalfamo, said.

Here's a sampling of what is likely to be on the table in these last 100 days:

• Hospital closures: Mr. Pataki's health care commission, which is led by a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Stephen Berger, will soon deliver to the governor's desk its recommendations for overhauling the state health care industry. The commission's most controversial task will be advising the governor on the fate of many of the city's money-losing hospitals.

If Mr. Pataki approves the commission's report, the proposals become law unless the Legislature acts to strike them down. How the battle over the commission's recommendations plays out could determine whether the state is granted a federal Medicaid waiver worth $1.5 billion.

• Legislative pay raises: Eight years ago, Mr. Pataki and lawmakers agreed to boost the governor's salary to $179,000 and legislators' salaries to $79,500, not including stipends for leadership positions. Pay raises would be the governor's most important bargaining chip in a special session. If lawmakers don't get Mr. Pataki's approval for one, that window is closed until at least 2009. Adding to the pressure is the fact that Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the front-runner in the governor's race, has said he's against giving lawmakers more money for what is supposed to be a part-time job.

• Charter schools: When they got their pay raises in 1998, lawmakers in return gave Mr. Pataki their blessing for a charter school bill that allowed for the creation of 100 of the experimental schools, which receive public funding but are generally nonunion and are independent of local school boards. The state has since used up all of the charters, leading Mr. Pataki to propose raising the statewide cap on the schools to 250. Lawmakers blocked his efforts, setting the stage for a replay of the charter for pay raise deal that was struck in 1998.

Mr. Spitzer has said he supports the creation of more charter schools, but proponents of the schools say they are not counting on Mr. Spitzer to go up against the state teachers union, which is opposed to the schools." If that gets shot down, I don't know when it gets done," a state senator of Brooklyn, Martin Golden, told The New York Sun.

. . . .

• Early retirement bill: In July, Mr. Pataki vetoed legislation that would have allowed state and city civilian employees 55 and older and with at least 25 years of service to retire without pension penalties and receive an annual pension equal to half of their maximum salaries. As the law stands, employees need at least 30 years of service to retire with full benefits.

Mr. Pataki said the bill was too costly and broad, but lawmakers, who are unlikely to risk the public criticism by overriding the governor, are open to compromise, according to Albany insiders.

• "Timothy's law": Named after a 12-year-old Rotterdam resident who suffered from depression and committed suicide, the law would force insurers to cover mental illnesses. It could be a flashpoint in negotiations between the governor and the Legislature, which passed it over the summer.

Faso tries negative ad tactic; With his election chances slim, Republican takes poke at Spitzer (Yancey Roy/Gannett News Service)

John Faso has gone on the attack. Given his poll standing, what else could he do?

The Republican released his first television advertisement of the gubernatorial campaign last week. With it, he hopes to knock Democratic frontrunner Eliot Spitzer down a peg--or eight or ten, which is what he'll need--by going negative.

The strategy is clear: Faso must convince people they shouldn't have such a kind opinion of Spitzer, the attorney general who earned national headlines as the "Sheriff of Wall Street" for his probes of the securities industry.

The tricky thing is this: Spitzer's favorable ratings are high and seem solid at this point.

But with Spitzer almost 50 points ahead in most polls, Faso has to try something to close the gap. Faso, a former state assemblyman from Columbia County, isn't as well known--even less than six weeks before Election Day--and can't rely on voters being drawn to him right now.

So far, Faso hasn't been handed a gift-wrapped issue to attack his opponent. In that sense, he isn't J. Christopher Callaghan.

Scandals shake up state races (Jay Gallagher/Gannett News Service)

Conventional wisdom, to say nothing of poll results, indicated before last week the race for state comptroller would be a runaway and the contest for attorney general would be competitive.

That situation may now be turned on its head after two explosive issues surfaced.

The race for state comptroller between Republican J. Christopher Callaghan and Democratic incumbent Alan Hevesi has looked like a non-contest from the day Hevesi announced he planned to seek another four-year term as the state's chief fiscal watchdog. But it got some life last week.

Callaghan, the former Saratoga County treasurer who barely needs a calculator to keep track of his campaign donations, is trying to capitalize on his disclosure that Hevesi used a state-paid driver to chauffeur his wife around New York City for three years.

. . . .

Callaghan's race looked lopsided from the beginning. Now there's an outside shot it will be a contest.

Callaghan said there was "no indication" Hevesi planned to pay the money back before Callaghan blew the whistle. Faso said Hevesi "stole" the money.

"Alan Hevesi should resign his office because he's abused the public trust," Faso said during a debate with his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer called for forgiveness for Hevesi, terming him a "stupendous" public official. But he added, "If anybody did that on my watch, trust me, there would be very serious consequences."

What better issue could an underdog candidate for comptroller against an incumbent have than "abuse of the public fisc," as Spitzer put it, or, in Faso's more straightforward construction, stealing?

There's more.

Comptroller coasts as opponent seeks funds (Cara Matthews/Gannett News Service)

What's the best way for a Democratic state comptroller to run for re-election in a year when another party member appears to have the gubernatorial office wrapped up, and that popularity is expected to trickle down?

For Alan Hevesi, a Queens Democrat seeking a second, four-year term as New York's top auditor, the strategy until recently involved running the Comptroller's Office and maintaining a skeleton of a campaign.

All that changed when upstart GOP opponent J. Christopher Callaghan, former Saratoga County treasurer, reported that a government employee had been driving the comptroller's disabled wife around since 2003, compliments of state taxpayers. Hevesi apologized, saying he was not sorry the driver provided needed protection for Carol Hevesi but was wrong not to have reimbursed the state for driving that was provided when there was no security threat. He then sent an $82,688.82 check to the treasury.

Callaghan's campaign has gained a lot of attention based on the issue, but it likely will not lead to a win unless he raises enough money to advertise or there are legal ramifications for Hevesi, said Lee Miringoff, head of the Marist College poll.

"People are aware of the controversy. It doesn't seem to be bothering them too much and people are just not sure whether anything was wrong here," Miringoff said. "People think there may have been a question of ethics involved, but they're just not sure."

Driving scandal gives underdog a lift; Chris Callaghan's long shot run for state comptroller gains notice in wake of Hevesi controversy (Rick Karlin/Albany Times Union)

Chris Callaghan might have remained just the latest sacrificial lamb to run against a well-known, well-heeled incumbent until he called Democratic Comptroller Alan Hevesi's own anti-fraud hot line two weeks ago with a tip: The comptroller had been using a state employee as a private driver for Hevesi's wife, Carol.

He called the press, too. Within days, Hevesi acknowledged the abuse, endured criticism from both sides of the political aisle, and announced he was writing a personal check for nearly $83,000 to reimburse the state.

Hevesi, who made a reputation as a watchdog over school boards, towns and public authorities, apologized publicly.

And Callaghan, an underdog with a penchant for bow ties, limericks and jokes, was catapulted, maybe not to statewide prominence, but at least out of obscurity.

There's much more.

Hevesi must be grateful for Pirro (Jim Franco/Troy Record)

There is no disputing sex sells. And for that Comptroller Alan Hevesi is forever grateful.

All he did was use a state employee to drive his wife around. Jeanine Pirro, on the other hand, threatened to bug her husband's boat to see if he was sleeping around with his neighbor.

Hevesi actually used the state employee, on the taxpayer dime, to chauffeur his wife. All Pirro did was talk about bugging her husband's boat. She didn't actually do anything and for that the feds opened up an investigation.

Debates make a difference (Editorial/Elmira Star-Gazette)

Finally, the New York governor's campaign feels like a campaign. The debate at Cornell University on Tuesday between Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Republican John Faso gave voters a stark side-by-side comparison of the two candidates.

Another debate is planned for Oct. 12 in Buffalo, and the willingness of candidates to face one another in these kinds of forums gives voters a deeper understanding--beyond the carefully orchestrated television ads--of what each candidate stands for.

. . . . by debating publicly, the candidates strengthen the democratic process and motivate the electorate to go to the polls with more than a name in their heads. Congrats to Spitzer and Faso for educating the electorate.

Buzzing campaigns; Unfortunately, it's taking controversy to spark public interest (editorial/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

In New York and around the country, otherwise ho-hum campaigns are suddenly getting lots of attention because of the sideshow factor. It spotlights a candidate's personal rather than political issues.

The Republican attorney general candidacy of Jeannine Pirro took another hit last week. The former Westchester County district attorney is at the center of a federal investigation into reports that she planned to use a wiretap to find out if her husband was having an affair. The New York City tabloids are having a field day.

Meanwhile, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who is seeking reelection, fell on his sword late last week after revelations that for years he used a state employee to chauffeur his disabled wife.

New York needs change; Candidates for governor, other offices should commit to specific reforms (editorial/Buffalo News)

[NYPIRG's urgent reform proposals] include nonpartisan redistricting, independent budget and ethics offices and reform of public authorities. If he never did anything else, a governor who achieved just those goals in 100 days would be remembered for generations.

The reasons are plain. Redistricting is now handled by elected representatives, who carve the state up for partisan advantage rather than the public good. An independent redistricting office could change that.

Ethics laws, meanwhile, are without teeth in this state, lacking "meaningful and independent enforcement mechanisms," as the report says. An independent ethics office, properly constituted, could change that.

On the budget front, one of the reasons New York's budget was late for 20 consecutive years is that agreement on the amount of money available is a matter of partisan opinion. The state needs a nonpartisan office to issue binding estimates, such as Congress has.

Authority reform is crucial for a couple of reasons. One is that while public authorities are public/private hybrids, they do the public's business, at public expense, with little oversight. Systems need to be standardized and monitoring improved if the public is to have confidence in the operations of these agencies.

Even more important is to put an end to the government's shady use of authorities for borrowing. The state is constitutionally prohibited from borrowing without the approval of voters, but the governor and Legislature routinely evade that restriction by ordering an authority to borrow the money. Taxpayers, of course, pick up the bill. It's legal but fundamentally dishonest, with the vast majority of the state's exorbitant debt racked up through this evasion.

. . . .

Neither [Eliot Spitzer nor John Faso] lacks for ideas on how to go about fixing this state, but voters should demand more specific plans during this campaign than were offered in the candidates' recent debate. The more pressure applied to the candidates--for governor and the Legislature--the greater the prospects of action.

Jeanine, Jeanine! Alan, Alan, Alan!/Pirro, Hevesi judgment called into question (editorial/Middletown Times Herald-Record)

[Jeanine] Pirro, the former Westchester County district attorney and one-time darling of the state Republican Party, finds herself embroiled in yet another scandal precipitated by her husband's misbehavior. Pirro is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office on suspicion of having her husband's conversations secretly tape-recorded because she thought he was cheating on her. This would be illegal, not good for someone running for attorney general.

Pirro denies she taped her husband, although she did talk about it with Bernard Kerik. Talk about bad judgment. He's the former New York City police commissioner who was forced to resign as secretary of homeland security for accepting free home renovations from a contractor with suspected mob ties.

. . . .

. . . . there's no evidence of any political trickery by Democrats, which would be foolish given her opponent, Andrew Cuomo's, big lead on her in the polls. To tell the truth, Pirro has been her own worst enemy much of the time in her campaigning. She started by being offered any candidacy she wanted and elected to challenge Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is seeking re-election. The GOP sighed and went along since Pirro looked like their most attractive candidate. But she couldn't match Clinton's money and drawing power and famously lost a page of a campaign speech, standing mute for half a minute.

Under pressure from Republican leaders (secretly lobbied by her husband, Albert), she dropped out of the Senate race to run for attorney general. This made sense given her 16 years as a DA with a solid reputation. But that campaign has also stumbled, and she was caught on tape as dismissing the attorney general's job as something she'd already done.

. . . .

As for Hevesi, an overwhelming favorite for re-election as comptroller, the Democrat admitted, under challenge from his Republican opponent, Christopher Callaghan, that he has been using a state driver as a chauffeur for his seriously ill wife. For three years. This is the kind of thing the comptroller scolds local government officials for doing because it is unethical. The state Ethics Commission even told him so three years ago.

Hevesi has apologized and says he will repay the state the $82,000 for the driver, but Republicans point out he did the same thing when he was New York City comptroller.

Some habits are hard to break.

Hevesi is an incumbent with a reputation as a straight shooter, but he's got more explaining to do on this issue.

Poll shows voters glad to know of Pirro probe (Associated Press)

Senate minority fight wraps up; Queens Democrat Malcolm Smith beats out 5, including Neil Breslin (Liz Benjamin/Albany Times Union)

Queens Democrat Malcolm Smith has clinched the battle to be the next state Senate minority leader, beating out five other contenders, including local Sen. Neil Breslin.

Legislative minority leader posts have long been viewed as the least powerful positions in Albany. But the Senate Democrats, who are just four seats away from wresting control of the chamber from Republican hands, are poised to gain in stature with the expected election this fall of the first Democratic governor in 12 years.

Breslin, the only upstate lawmaker in the running, said he received a call Friday night from the Queens Democratic chairman, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley, who said Smith had amassed enough support to sew up the leadership contest. It takes 14 votes to become leader of the 27-member minority conference.

Malcolm Smith to replace Paterson as Senate minority leader (Associated Press)

D'Amato throws in towel on AG race (Fred Dicker/New York Post)

Former Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato conceded yesterday "it is virtually impossible" for scandal-plagued Jeanine Pirro to win the race for New York attorney general.

D'Amato, voicing what has quickly become a consensus in the state's Republican hierarchy, cited the revelations that the former Westchester district attorney is under federal investigation for plotting to place a bug on the boat of her allegedly cheating husband.

Probers on Pirro $$ trail; Feds call for DA's financial records (Fred Dicker/New York Post)

The explosive federal probe of Republican attorney-general candidate Jeanine Pirro's efforts to plant a bug in her allegedly cheating husband's boat has widened to include her personal financial records, The Post has learned.

More than 100 pages of Pirro's confidential financial documents--including records revealing all private business involvements she may have--were subpoenaed Friday night by federal authorities, sources said.

. . . .

The subpoena demanded eight years of Pirro's financial disclosure statements--from 1998 to 2005--when she was Westchester County district attorney, a source familiar with the subpoena said.

It orders Westchester authorities to turn over the records to the grand jury on Wednesday.

"Seeking the financial records suggests that the feds are looking at things that go well beyond the 'love boat' issue," said a source familiar with the investigation.

Dueling Apple 'trans' ban (Carl Campanile/New York Post)

The trans fat is in the fire.

Hot on the heels of the Bloomberg administration's planned ban on the artery-clogging oil in Big Apple eateries, City Council leaders are drafting a law to do the same, setting the stage for a sizzling City Hall feud, The Post has learned.

Councilman Peter Vallone said his bill would be nearly identical to the ban outlined by Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden to eliminate trans fats in cooking oil and food in restaurants.

Vallone told The Post the controversial restrictions should have the force of a law, not just administrative rule-making.

Despite delay, Laurentian Aerospace project called solid (Dan Heath/Plattsburgh Press-Republican)

Laurentian Aerospace MRO Services says its much-anticipated project is still solid, despite the start date being pushed back to spring.

Construction was originally scheduled to begin this month.

Laurentian President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Gobeil said Monday that the company expects to close on the deal in January and begin construction sometime in March or April.

The timetable has changed because the company's Canadian engineering firm doesn't do work in the United States, he said.

"That slowed us down. In the end, we still plan to start operation in the spring of 2008."

So far, so good on border bill (editorial/Plattsburgh Press-Republican)

We got our way on the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative--so far. Our congressional delegation has earned our deep gratitude for thwarting attempts at making border traffic slow from a gush to a trickle.

The Travel Initiative includes the requirement that people crossing the border have a passport as official identification. It would be the only document that would get you into Canada and back. But passports, of course, are expensive. In many cases, obtaining one could cost $100. For a family traveling only occasionally, that expense could be prohibitive. It at least could be such a nuisance that it would be easy to decide just to stay home.

That kind of obstruction to cross-border traffic in this region could be devastating. Particularly at this time, when the Canadian dollar is moving inexorably back into line with the American, we cannot afford to slow the flow of commercial and recreational vehicles across the Canadian border.

. . . .

. . . . The Lacolle-Champlain border crossing is the busiest in Quebec and the sixth busiest in Canada. More than $15 billion worth of exported goods travel through this crossing annually, and a daily volume of more than 2,000 trucks was handled there in 2001. Champlain is the third-busiest truck crossing on the U.S. Canadian border behind Detroit and the Buffalo area. It is also the gateway on the route between Quebec and New York City, North America's two busiest ports.

Our congressional delegation is well aware of the importance of this crossing to the region. Their efforts reflect their commitment, as well as their considerable influence.

Legislation delays border passport mandate; Bill awaiting signing puts off requirement for car, boat travel until 2009; air travelers still face '07 deadline (Stewart Powell/Hearst Newspapers)

U.S. citizens returning to the United States from Canada or Mexico by land or sea won't have to carry U.S. passports at least until June 2009.

That's the result of legislation overwhelmingly adopted by Congress late Friday night and awaiting President Bush's signature.

The delay pushes back the U.S. passport requirement for land travelers from Jan. 1, 2008, until June 1, 2009, and for cruise ship passengers from Jan. 8, 2007, to June 1, 2009.

Left intact was the Jan. 8, 2007, deadline for U.S. citizens returning by air from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean to present U.S. passports to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency agents.

Congress Works On Tax Breaks For N.Y. Ethanol Producers (Steven M. Sweeney/Jamestown Post-Journal)

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Brian Higgins, D-South Buffalo, are sponsoring bills in their respective houses of Congress to give tax credits to companies which produce less than 150 million gallons of ethanol a year. Only companies in New York, California, Florida and Texas however would benefit.

Those four states are the only ones whose residents consume more than 2 percent of the nation's unleaded gasoline, but produce less than 2 percent of the nation's ethanol.

If approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives and signed into law by President Bush, the Ethanol Stimulus Act of 2006 would make setting up an ethanol brewery and distillery more enticing.

Fog still shrouds Destiny (Dick Case column/Syracuse Post-Standard )

The folks at Destiny USA say they're good to go on a project that's promised to put Syracuse on steroids.

After all this time and uncertainty?

Yes.

The deal maker here is a decision by a state appellate court that tells the major tenants at Carousel Center--Destiny's child--they can't stand in the way of Pyramid partners, the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency, the city and the county to take a first step into the major commercial-entertainment complex in what we used to call "Oil City," Syracuse's lakefront.

Destiny's short statement Friday went to the quick: All of the partners' resources "are focused on starting the project" before the end of the year.

There's more.

City Is in Talks With State to Join a Medicaid Inquiry (Diane Cardwell/New York Times)

City officials are negotiating with the state to join a pilot program that allows counties to investigate the fraudulent use of Medicaid by health care providers in exchange for a share of any money recovered.

The city can already pursue abuse and fraud by those insured under Medicaid, the government health care plan for the poor, but it is not yet authorized to go after doctors, pharmacies, nurses, hospitals and other health care providers suspected of abusing the system.

New York is rare in requiring that counties pay a large share of Medicaid costs, yet until recently it did not allow counties to investigate those billing the program. The state alone held the power to police the program, but its efforts have been criticized as weak.

The state has been under increasing pressure to root out waste, fraud and abuse under the Medicaid program, especially as health care costs have soared and the number of people charged with investigating the system has remained low.

In Move to Cut Hospitals, U.S. Will Pay New York $1.5 Billion (Richard Perez-Pena/New York Times)

The Bush administration has agreed to pay New York $1.5 billion over five years to help stabilize the state's financially troubled hospital industry, state and federal officials said yesterday. In return, the state will move forward with shrinking that industry, cutting Medicaid costs, and sharply increasing the sums it recovers from Medicaid fraud.

Along with a $1 billion commitment the state has made of its own money, the long-sought agreement, to be announced today by state and federal officials, is considered a crucial piece of Gov. George E. Pataki's push to reshape the health care business in New York.

The state intends to close under-used hospitals and improve the economic health of those that remain, and to steer people to cheaper health care alternatives than the ones they use now, like outpatient clinics rather than emergency rooms, and in-home care rather than nursing homes.

Hospital closings can carry steep short-term costs, like paying off outstanding debts, paying severance to workers, and converting acute-care buildings to outpatient clinics. In addition, the state's plans call for heavy investment in computer technology for the surviving hospitals.

No other state has negotiated a similar deal, and none are likely to, officials said. The hospital industry in most states, like their populations, is growing; New York's industry is shrinking, and is in uniquely bad financial shape.

Deal said near to keep AXA downtown; Landlord asks city of Syracuse for guarantee, upgrades, extended PILOT (Greg Munno and Rick Moriarty/Syracuse Post-Standard )

Representatives for the downtown office towers that house the 950 employees of AXA Financial Inc. said Monday they are near completing a deal that will keep the insurance and financial management company in Syracuse until at least 2024.

Harry Harkaway of The Pioneer Cos. and Lowell Seifter of the law firm Green & Seifter delivered that news at a Syracuse Common Council economic development committee meeting. They represent the towers' owner, a trust managed by New Jersey-based investor Norton Herrick.

Lisa Tibbitts, a media relations officer for AXA, was less definitive, saying AXA is "still exploring all options," and hasn't committed to staying in the towers after its lease expires at the end of 2008.

Harkaway and Seifter were before the council to request the city's help in making the deal with AXA work. That's a good sign AXA is close to signing a new lease at the towers, according to David Mankiewicz, assistant to the president of the Metropolitan Development Association, an economic development and planning group.

More than 100 lose jobs here as work shifts to Mexico (Fred Williams/Buffalo News)

Visteon completed the shutdown of manufacturing at its radiator plant in West Seneca at the end of September, the company said, a move that eliminates more than 100 jobs.

The auto-parts maker is consolidating production at a lower-cost plant in Mexico, while retaining engineering and customer service jobs here.

City students march for more school funding; Need for teachers, books, more space all cited (Gary McLendon/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Rochester students marched to seek more money for their teachers and administrators, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle duly reports--but the paper also makes clear, to its credit, that the event was another in a series of publicity students by advocates for higher school spending and taxes.

Hundreds of Rochester public school students marched to the Liberty Pole on Monday to demand more money for city schools.

The event is one of several in the last few weeks highlighting the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court case, a 13-year fight to change the state's education funding system to ensure funding is adequate for urban school districts.

If the state Court of Appeals upholds a lower court ruling after hearing the CFE case Oct. 10, New York City, Rochester and other cities in the state stand to receive millions more in school funding.

In anticipation of a possible ruling by next week to require increased funding, more than 200 students rallied for what more money could buy in city schools: books, security, smaller class sizes and teachers.

The story neglects to include any perspective from those with alternative perspectives on school funding and taxes.

Legendary game farm is closing its gates for good (Joe Mahoney/Daily News)

The Catskill Game Farm, the animal refuge that took generations of city kids on safari, is going the way of the Borscht Belt--yet another nostalgic casualty of the drooping upstate economy.

The 1,000-acre spread in Greene County, founded in 1933 as little more than a petting zoo, grew into a home for nearly 2,000 animals, including exotic species such as lions, tigers, zebras and camels.

But Kathie Schulz, daughter of founder Roland Lindemann, said the storied past of the Catskills is as faded as a 2-cent postcard sent off from summer camp--and her efforts to keep the farm going are over.

"Our area has become quite depressed, and it's no longer the vacation mecca that it was back in the 1950s and 1960s," said Schulz, 65. "Back then, there were more things families could do around here.

Former state senator Seymour Lachman has a tell-all book on how business is done at the state Capitol, and why he quit his job as senator in 2004, the Albany Business Review reports..

"I reluctantly came to the conclusion that I couldn't possibly make an important difference--despite occasional successes--by working from within the system."

What Lachman called the "misrule" of government in Albany is all about politics, but not really about partisanship. Lachman is a Democrat who represented a district in Brooklyn and Staten Island. But he said it'd have been the same way if he were a Republican from Watervliet.

"I determined that it didn't really matter whether Democrats or Republicans controlled Albany now or in the future, because the place was too rotten at its core," he said. "Absent fierce pressure for reform over months and years, neither the members of my party--the Democrats--nor the Republicans were going to bring an open, transparent, contentious, and vital democracy to New York state. Ever."

. . . .

Lachman also condemns other transgressions in Albany: lax oversight of authorities, budgetary shenanigans, predetermined passage of legislation before bills actually reach the Assembly or Senate floors, the undue clout of special interests and the tortured drawing of legislative districts for partisan advantage, among them.

. . . .

Lachman went back to teaching political science, at Adelphi University on Long Island, and he has written a new book with former newspaper reporter Robert Polner about his disillusioning experience being a state senator. It is titled "Three Men in a Room."

Buffalo school administrators, griping about money again, can be silenced with the promise of a few million dollars more, the Buffalo News reports.

When County Executive Joel A. Giambra unveiled his plan for the county to keep the sales tax revenue that schools now get, a collective groan went up from school administrators. Thirty suburban school superintendents took the unprecedented step last week of adopting a resolution opposing the plan. Their main objection was that residents would vote down the school budgets in May once they saw their tax rates go up.

Yet, as universal and as adamant as the schools' opposition is, it turns out there is something that could change their minds: money.

School officials say a few million dollars, to be divided among all the districts, would likely bring about a change of heart.

. . . .

The schools were given 29 percent of the revenue from the then-3-percent county sales tax that was hammered out in 1977. Although the schools were given a generous share - more than schools get in any other county in New York - they do not have a say in whether, or how, the sales tax distribution is altered.

But the County Legislature does have to sign off on any change. That's where the political power of the schools factors in. The legislators whose districts include the schools would be hard-pressed to curtail the funding and risk angering the schools, their labor unions and the thousands of parents who would be affected.

Hevesi erred on driver; Misuse of state-funded worker time should have been corrected immediately (editorial/Buffalo News)

The state comptroller started having a state employee chauffeur his wife only two months after he took office in 2003. It was foolish in the first place, but it gets worse. Just two months after that, the state Ethics Commission ruled that Hevesi should reimburse the state for the chauffeur's time unless the services were required for security. The money was never paid and the chauffeur kept driving until three months ago, by which time the tab was $83,688.82.

Shades of Arthur Andersen. Hevesi's transgression may be minor compared to the one perpetrated by the enablers of Enron, but he holds a great position of trust. He represents all the people of New York, who authorized him to monitor the state's finances and oversee its retirement fund. Surely voters have a right to expect him to treat taxpayers' money with respect. Hevesi isn't poor. If his wife needed a chauffeur, he could have paid for it. That's not a job for New Yorkers.

Foe questions Hevesi again; Comptroller accused of using state resources in election (Cara Matthews/Gannett News Service)

On the heels of divulging that Comptroller Alan Hevesi used a government worker as a chauffeur for his disabled wife, his GOP opponent is accusing him of using office resources and staff to campaign for re-election.

J. Christopher Callaghan, a long-shot candidate for New York's top auditor, said in a complaint to the state Board of Elections this week that it was inappropriate for one of Hevesi's aides in the Comptroller's Office to spend work time recording Callaghan's remarks at a candidates forum last week, and to use a state-owned recording device. Callaghan spoke before Hevesi at the New York Association of Counties' annual fall meeting.

Callaghan noted in the letter that another state employee, Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt, has commented to the media about Hevesi's use of a state driver for the comptroller's wife from 2003 until this year, and "has been the only spokesman that Mr. Hevesi's campaign has had."

"The taxpayers should never be called upon to finance anyone's political campaign," Callaghan wrote. "It is particularly galling when public money is diverted by the fiscal watchdog so that his own campaign war chest can remain locked and well-stocked."

Tax rebate will be taxed; Tax rebates subject to income tax, state admits--for now (John Milgrim/Ottaway News Service)

The property-tax rebate checks that homeowners across the state are now getting in the mail are subject to federal, state and local income tax, state officials concede.

It means the millions of New Yorkers who itemize their tax returns will have to reduce their school property-tax credit by the amount of the check.

And the few who get checks for more than they pay in school taxes will have to report the excess as income, according to the State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Now, lawmakers in both houses of the State Legislature who helped create the rebate check program to begin with want to make the money tax free, at least when it comes to state taxes.

Windsor's board accepts petition to dissolve village; 225 residents seek study of dissolution (George Basler/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

In what one resident called an historic move, the Windsor board took the first step Monday toward a possible dissolution of the village.

The board accepted a petition, signed by about 225 village residents, calling for dissolution and incorporation into the Town of Windsor. In doing so, the village became the first Broome County community where residents have formally asked for a study of the dissolution of their local government.

The next step is for the village to appoint a study committee, including two representatives of the town, to study how the village could incorporate its services into the town, and the impact on village services and taxpayers. The board will hopefully approve the committee at its November meeting, once signatures on the petitions are verified, Mayor Suzanne Salt said.

Fiala's budget hikes taxes 3.67%; Redistribution of sales tax blamed for increase (Liz Hacken/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Broome County Executive Barbara J. Fiala blamed most of the 3.67 percent property tax increase in her proposed 2007 budget on the Legislature's decision to evenly split the local 4 percent sales tax revenues between the county and its municipalities.

"Had the legislators shown better fiscal management on this matter, the 2007 tax rate (increase) would have been infinitesimal," she said in her budget address Monday.

Fiala's budget proposal, which is her second since taking office, calls for a 5.4 percent increase in spending and a 5.7 percent revenue increase in the $327 million spending plan. The proposed property tax increase is less than the inflation rate in the Northeast and across the United States, she said.

Reaction to the Democratic executive's proposal was mixed and echoed party lines.

{Oswego] County tax cuts said a sure bet; Legislators will begin discussing proposed 2007 budget today. (Charles McChesney/Syracuse Post-Standard )

For 2007, the issue isn't if Oswego County will cut property taxes, but how much they will be cut.

Since the early months of this year, legislative leaders have said repeatedly that they planned to reduce property taxes in the 2007 budget. Today, lawmakers will begin discussing the county's 2007 budget.

"This year is about cutting taxes," Legislature Chairman Russ Johnson, R-Fulton, said in June after pushing through a reduction in what the county collects on gasoline sales.

At that time, County Administrator Stephen Lyman said the county would be able to cut property taxes by about $4 million in 2007--even with the cut in the gas tax.

On Monday, Lyman wouldn't say how big a tax cut was included in the tentative budget that would be unveiled at today's meeting of the Legislature's Finance and Personnel Committee.

"You'll just have to wait and see," he said with a smile.

Last year, legislators passed a 1.2 percent county property tax cut.

Brewer wants appraisal lowered (Tom Leo/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Anheuser-Busch is asking the courts to lower the property assessment for its Lysander plant by $58 million.

This year, the town assessed the brewery at $93 million, about $1.5 million higher than last year. The company argues the assessment should be closer to $35 million.

"That's a huge discrepancy," said Town Supervisor Barry Bullis. The case could take three years to settle, he said.

Anheuser-Busch based the $35 million appraisal on the work of an independent contractor it hired.

"That appraisal determined that we have been significantly overassessed compared with other industrial manufacturers in the state and several recent brewery sales," plant manager Steve McCormick said in a statement released by Anheuser-Busch.

Officials hope aid for [Binghamton]continues; 2-year program was Pataki idea (Brian Liberatore/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

The city could have faced double-digit property tax increases in 2007 without an infusion of $1.6 million in additional state funding through the state Aid and Incentives to Municipalities program, which runs through 2007.

Gov. George E. Pataki announced the two-year program in 2005, and it's uncertain whether the new governor will continue the assistance.

If the state does not continue the funding, "you don't need a crystal ball to see a crisis is coming," said city council President John Cordisco, D-9th District. Cordisco addressed his comments to Mayor Matthew T. Ryan during a public hearing on the 2007 proposed budget Monday night.

Ryan said he was confident the state support would continue. "He (gubernatorial frontrunner Democrat Eliot Spitzer) knows the plight of upstate cities," Ryan said, referring to discussions he has had with Attorney General Spitzer. "I anticipate that under Sptizer's term he will actually increase aid to upstate cities."

Ryan's budget calls for a general- fund spending increase of 5.2 percent to $48.6 million in 2007. The proposed tax levy of $24.2 million would require tax increases of 2.65 percent for residential properties and 3.21 percent for commercial properties in 2007. During the hour-long public comment session, local Civil Service Employee Association president and Republican county Legislature candidate JoAnne Hanrahan spoke against the proposal, saying the budget would mean the layoff of one union employee.

Owego budget would raise town's taxes, cut village's; 2007 spending plan totals $5.1 million (Debbie Swartz/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Village of Owego residents would pay slightly less in town taxes under a 2007 budget proposal unveiled Monday, but town residents living outside the village would see an increase of 10.2 percent.

For the average home in the town outside of the village--assessed at $99,000--town tax bills would increase $16.59 to $264.82. Owners of a village home assessed at $65,700--the average assessed value there--would see their 2007 bills decline 3 cents to $56.25.

In addition to a property tax rate increase, town residents using municipal water and sewer would see increases in those bills.

. . . .

Residents of the town outside the village pay higher tax rates because they pay for services including highway repair and maintenance. The tentative budget calls for town residents to pay $2.67 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Village residents would pay 86 cents per $1,000.

Gates taxes could rise nearly 8 percent; Proposed budget would end summer event, cut library funds (Ernst Lamothe Jr./Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Following up on his promise after a townwide residents survey, Supervisor Ralph Esposito has eliminated the annual Gates Summer Celebration and cut library funding in his preliminary budget proposal, released Monday.

The 2007 budget proposal cuts $30,000 from the library budget, which could reduce or end operations on Saturdays, and it ends the celebration and fireworks show for a year, saving $23,000 more.

Of the $30,000 in library cuts, almost $20,000 come from reductions in employee benefits.

The 2007 budget calls for a 7.89 percent tax increase next year, about half the size of the 14 percent increase in 2006. The proposal includes a 2007 town tax rate of $6.88 per $1,000 assessed value, up from this year's $6.38 per $1,000.

Next year, residents would pay an average of $596 per year in town taxes, a $44 increase from 2006. The total budget is $14,416,097, a slight decrease from last year's budget.

"You've got to expect a tax increase when you are funding an almost $3 million Police Department," said Esposito. "But this is the most optimistic budget that I have done since Kodak left."

Schenectady proposes $279M budget; Property owners face nearly 2 percent tax hike; vote expected by Nov. 1 (Mike Goodwin/Albany Times Union)

Schenectady] County taxpayers will pay roughly 2 percent more in property taxes next year under a $279 million budget that finance officials unveiled Monday.

The County Legislature will have a month to make adjustments to the 2007 spending plan, but if it goes through as proposed, the 1.93 percent property tax increase would offset the 1 percent decrease in the current budget, which lawmakers passed in the midst of countywide elections last year.

The county's full-value tax rate would be $6.71 for every $1,000 of full value, but that number would vary slightly from municipality to municipality based on the state equalization rate and the assessments in each community, County Finance Commissioner George Davidson said.

For a homeowner in the city of Schenectady, the county tax rate would translate into a tax bill of roughly $577 on a single-family home assessed at $86,000, the city's average.

Spending is expected to climb to $250 million from $235 million in the current budget, though Davidson said state-mandated changes in how counties account for sales tax will spell the final number to $279 million.

Sheriff Projects $1.2 Million Increase (Dennis Phillips/Jamestown Post-Journal

With a projected 9.1 percent increase, $1.2 million, in the local cost for the county Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Joseph Gerace told county legislators that state jail mandates and fuel cost are to blame.

During his budget hearing Monday with the county's Public Safety and Audit and Control committees, Gerace said he knows his department has significant cost increases.

He said the $700,000 increase in jail expenses, a 12.4 percent jump, is due to mandates by the state and inmate medication cost.

Gerace said he is trying to discover more affordable ways to pay for medication to lower cost. He said he is working on a proposal to work with a Western New York hospital to team up to get medication, which would lower cost by 25 percent.

Gerace said his operations budget is up 7 percent, nearly $400,000, which is due to raising gas prices.

Tax question heats up library debate; Attorney: Percentage increase can be left off ballot proposition (Madeline Farbman/Glens Falls Post-Star)

After heated dispute over whether the Town Board could amend Crandall Public Library's ballot proposition to include the percentage increase of its proposed budget, the Warren County attorney has stated that the town's suggested change should not be included on the ballot in November.

Multiple copies of the ballot proposition--both with and without the Town Board's addition--were sent to the county Board of Elections, which consulted County Attorney Paul Dusek.

In reply, Dusek wrote in a letter to the Board of Elections dated Sept. 29, "I am of the opinion that the Warren County Board of Elections should use the proposition approved and presented by the Crandall Library Board and not the revised version presented by the Town Board for the Town of Queensbury."

The Town Board had sought to include language stating that the $885,356 that town residents would contribute to the library's proposed 2007 budget "represents a 9.14 percent increase over the 2006 level which was $811,186."

The purpose of this addition was to provide voters with more information, said Councilman Richard Sanford, who had raised the issue.

Home Properties sells local holdings; Company focusing on East Coast (Ben Rand/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

A real estate company that grew from local commercial property development here to become one of the nation's largest apartment owners is cutting some ties to greater Rochester.

Home Properties Inc. said Monday that it had reached an agreement to sell its apartment holdings in upstate New York for an undisclosed sum. The deal covers 18 buildings containing more than 4,500 apartments, some of which have been part of Home Properties for years.

The company said the buyers are a team of three unaffiliated regional property owners and developers, but it declined to identify them. Precise financial terms of the sale also were not disclosed, though the company said the buyers had made a $6 million nonrefundable deposit.

. . . .

The move to sell the upstate properties is part of a continuing push by Home Properties to purchase apartment complexes in high-growth areas along the East Coast while exiting markets with less favorable demographics and economic conditions. For instance, the company recently reached an agreement to sell its holdings in the Detroit area, while separately purchasing two buildings with 612 units in suburban Boston.

. . . .

While the apartments here are in excellent shape, the company thought it "could do better elsewhere," Gardner said.

"If these properties were in northern Virginia or Long Island, it's possible we could say we were still interested in keeping them," Gardner said.

Another factor in the company's decision: The general struggling nature of Rochester's economy. Apartment companies typically depend on the formation of new households, particularly those headed by young people. Greater Rochester's population has been stable to declining over the past 15 years, a factor highlighted in the Rochester Business Alliance's "Unshackle Upstate" agenda for reforming the state's business climate.

"We need to have an economic engine creating the need for new households," Gardner said. "It's been tough, because we're not seeing that economic engine."

The president of another local apartment company said Home Properties is probably being kind in its assessment of the struggles of upstate New York.

The exodus of young people is making it harder and harder for apartment companies to increase their financial returns, said Jim Costanza, president of Costanza Enterprises Inc., which owns six complexes in the greater Rochester area with more than 1,000 units.

Other challenges include higher property taxes and utility and regulatory costs, Costanza said.

Buyers turn gloomier in statewide survey; Slowing housing market, rising interest rates are weighing on consumer confidence in metro areas (Eric Anderson/Albany Times Union)

Consumers in the state's major metropolitan areas were feeling a bit gloomier in the third quarter, according to new findings from the Siena Research Institute.

The consumer confidence index for the state's major metro areas lost ground everywhere, the survey found, with the biggest drop coming in Binghamton, which still is recovering from early-summer flooding.

The change from the second quarter would have been even worse but for a drop in gasoline and other energy prices in September, said Douglas Lonnstrom, director of the institute, which is affiliated with Siena College in Loudonville.

. . . .

The survey, patterned after one conducted nationally by the University of Michigan, calculates an index of consumer sentiment with the base year of 1966 equaling 100.

The state index typically has lagged behind the nation's confidence index. In the most recent quarter, it stood at 84, according to the Siena data.

Within New York, the Capital Region and New York City have typically had higher indexes, while Buffalo's has been among the lowest.

That doesn't surprise The Business Council of New York State Inc.

"The one thing we consistently notice about the Siena survey is, it seems to mirror the data on job creation," said Matthew Maguire, a spokesman for the state's largest business lobby. "It's typically highest in the Capital Region and downstate, and lowest in other parts of upstate, and western New York in particular."

In Buffalo: The Buffalo News reports that:

Consumer confidence in the Buffalo Niagara region, already the lowest in the state, took a further hit over the summer, while local manufacturers also reported a slowdown in their growth for the second straight month during September.

Tier suffers consumer confidence drop; Survey says area sees biggest drop in state (My-Ly Nguyen/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

The Binghamton area experienced the largest drop in overall consumer confidence in the state, according to a quarterly survey released Monday by the Siena (College) Research Institute.

Overall consumer confidence in the region was 68.2 points in the third quarter, down 8 points from the previous quarter. The rest of the state experienced slight declines in overall confidence during the period, ranging from 0.3 of a point in New York City and Syracuse to 1.7 points in Albany.

It's "clear the Southern Tier's confidence was hurt by the June floods," said Douglas Lonnstrom, SRI director and Siena College professor of finance and statistics.

Lonnstrom had said in July, when the institute released its second-quarter results, that the floods likely would have a "big impact" on consumer confidence in the third quarter.

. . . .

Compared to the same time last year, the Binghamton area's overall consumer confidence declined by 0.1 of a point, according to the SRI survey.

N.Y. consumers remain uneasy (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Housing: Perception vs. reality; Some city homeowners may be underestimating property's value (Amy Wu/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Rochester homeowners' perception of the value of their homes has declined since 2000 but does not reflect the true growth that the city's housing market has had.

That's according to interviews with local real estate agents and new data from the U.S. Census Bureau released today, which compares the median home value for 2000 and 2005 of cities in the United States with populations greater than 65,000.

The data, which are part of the bureau's American Community Survey of 2005, compile the answers of homeowners who were asked how much they thought the value of their property was, or how much they thought it would sell for.

In Rochester, the median value of housing in 2000 was $62,100 (or $70,395 when inflated to 2005 dollars), compared with $62,800 in 2005, according to the survey.

While the data is not definitive and scientific, it offers a window into the perception of how homeowners view their city's real estate market, and in some cases it reflects the reality of the housing market, said Arthur Cresce, the bureau's assistant division chief for housing characteristics.

. . . .

The data showed that downstate cities, most notably in Westchester County and New York City, saw a dramatic climb in median housing value while upstate saw a decline, most notably in Buffalo and Rochester. The entire state saw housing value grow from $167,315 in 2000 to $258,900 in 2005.

Health system getting $1.5B (Associated Press)

New York state will receive $1.5 billion in federal funds over the next five years to help reform its health care system, Gov. George Pataki announced Tuesday.

The money, matched with $1.5 billion from the state, will be used to retrain workers and pay off mortgages as the state closes and merges underused hospitals, Pataki said.

It also will be used to update health care technology and to steer patients away from hospitals and nursing homes and into lower-cost options like ambulatory care and in-home care.

. . . .

In return for the federal funds, the state must meet cost-cutting targets including increasing the use of managed care within Medicaid.

Healing Medicaid (editorial/Daily News)

State officials are taking steps to control health care spending that should be good news for taxpayers and patients alike. The Pataki administration secured $1.5 billion in federal aid to pay for a long-overdue winnowing of New York's hospitals and nursing homes. A governor's commission will soon recommend which institutions should close, shrink or convert to new uses, and the cash from Washington should ensure that those things happen.

The federal aid comes with strings attached, namely, New York must use it to save money and improve care in the long term. . . .

Another condition requires a crackdown on fraud in the state's $45 billion Medicaid program, by far the most bloated and waste-ridden in the nation. Protecting taxpayers from rampant ripoffs must be a priority. At the same time, City Hall is trying to mount its anti-fraud campaign. New York has a long way to go in fixing its health care system so it wastes less money and takes better care of patients. But finally, it seems, politicians are moving in the right direction.

Union decries plan to move jobs; PEF, Capital Region lawmakers vow fallout for Pataki if positions are transferred to Utica, Geneva (Rick Karlin/Albany Times Union)

State workers and Capital Region lawmakers vowed Tuesday to fight plans to move more than 300 jobs to Utica and Geneva.

Among their tactics: cutting funding for the moves from future budgets, and even dogging Gov. George Pataki, who is eyeing a presidential run, in New Hampshire, where he opened an office this week.

. . . .

The state plans to consolidate its four data centers in the Capital Region, which handle digital tasks for state agencies, in a single center in Utica. The cost was originally estimated at $75 million but is now pegged at $99.5 million, said Tom Comanzo, a Public Employees Federation union coordinator.

Pataki also proposed moving the Department of Agriculture and Markets food safety lab, which tests food items for adulteration or contamination, from the Harriman campus to Geneva.

The proposals have sparked charges of political payoffs and favoritism. Critics said data centers were a consolation prize for Utica, which lost a computer chip fabrication plant proposal to Saratoga County. Some consider the food safety lab move a favor to a longtime Pataki ally, Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Seneca Falls.

Current in bigger site, adding jobs; $1M in tax incentives persuaded broadband firm to expand here (Amy Wu/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

In a sign that it is committed to growing in Rochester, Current Communications unveiled its 52,000-square-foot office building in Henrietta on Tuesday morning.

The expanded operations represents a $10 million investment in the community, including 180 new jobs over the next five years, said Ron Boillat, president and COO of the company, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony whose attendees included Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.

. . . .

In January, the company, a subsidiary of the Current Communications Group in Germantown, Md., was given the green light from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency to receive more than $1 million in tax incentives for the project over 10 years.

Boillat, a native of Rochester, called the expansion a "win-win" for the community and the company. Current has started filling the new positions in information technology, engineering, sales and marketing and customer service.

COMIDA said that the benefit to the community would be $5.6 million. Although it could have expanded in Maryland or Texas, the company was attracted by the package of tax incentives here, Boillat said.

Mayor confirms 4 bidders show interest in ferry (Brian Sharp/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Up to four bidders are now competing with Euroferries Ltd. to buy Rochester's high-speed ferry, Mayor Robert Duffy said Tuesday, detailing for the first time what he called a "feverish competition."

Euroferries pledged $29.8 million for the ship in a deal announced in May. The British buyer has yet to close on the sale, and continues to seek financing to buy the ship and cover operations on the English Channel.

The delay reportedly has threatened Euroferries' Dover, England, docking arrangements while opening the door for other potential buyers, both old and new. Duffy said Euroferries remains the primary suitor. Each has visited Rochester, inspected the ship and is trying to finalize a deal, he said.

"If we wanted to cut the price to $25 million, we would have sold it yesterday," Duffy said of the ship.

He previously said the price remained in the $30 million range but, until Tuesday, had not revealed the number of bidders or suggested a floor on offers the city might accept. Euroferries also has promised to reimburse the city $6,000 a day, dating from June 1, for maintaining the ship at the Port of Rochester. The bill stood at $750,000 as of Tuesday.

Money for Oncenter hotel finally ready (Rick Moriarty/Syracuse Post-Standard)

With $15 million in state grants almost in the bag, construction could start in the spring on the long-delayed 350-room, $72.3 million convention center hotel in downtown Syracuse.

The state subsidy received the necessary political approvals early this year, but the mechanics of channeling three $5 million grants to the project--one each from monies controlled by the governor, the state Senate and the Assembly--have taken six months to work out.

But with those bureaucratic details settled, construction is scheduled to start in April, with an opening expected in March 2009, said Donald Western, director of economic development for Onondaga County.

Mental Health Insurance Law Passes (Patrick Fanelli/Jamestown Post-Journal)

This 650-word story cheers the passage of a mental-health parity bill without ever mentioning the serious policy arguments that had been raised against this bill, and without every noting that the bill eventually passed was substantially modified to reflect the legitimate concerns raised in those policy arguments. This is essentially a press release for advocates of the bill.

[Schenectady County] Town proposes 8.4% tax increase; Rotterdam officials cite employee pay, benefits as reasons for hike (Paul Nelson/Albany Times Union)

Nation pays $424,220 on Oneida city school tax (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Candidates talk of reforming property tax (John Davis/Poughkeepsie Journal)

The three candidates for the 102nd seat in the state Assembly agree the current system of funding public schools cannot continue.

They all differ, though, on how to lighten the growing burden of school property taxes.

Incumbent Assemblyman Joel Miller, R-Poughkeepsie, is seeking re-election Nov. 7 to another two-year term. He is being challenged by Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner, D-Clinton and Conservative Helen Westover of Poughkeepsie, a pro-life activist and piano teacher.

The three were questioned Tuesday afternoon at a Poughkeepsie Journal editorial roundtable.

Both Miller and Tyner favor replacing the school property tax on homeowners with a state income tax. Where the two part company, however, is Tyner's support of the bill being sponsored in Albany by Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston.

Cahill's bill would include small business owners in the switch to an income tax.

"I support wholeheartedly Kevin Cahill's school property tax reform bill," Tyner said.

Miller said a public education income tax would penalize business owners.

"The problem with the income tax on small business is the more you make, the more they take away," he said.

Westover opposes the shift to an income tax to fund public education. Rather, she said cutting spending and the "stranglehold of the (teachers) unions" is key.

"The income-tax approach just hides the spending," she said.

Tax rates, tax bills; Albany residents ought to enjoy a stable city budget, as they brace for next year's reassessment (editorial/Albany Times Union)

No, there isn't any property tax increase in Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings' proposed budget for next year. City spending will be up 6 percent, assuming the mayor's budget is approved. The city tax rate and actual city tax bills would stay the same, though.

There's a fine distinction between the two, as Albany taxpayers will be reminded soon enough. When property across the city is reassessed next year, Albany residents can likely look forward to significantly higher tax bills even if the tax rate itself remans stable or is even lowered a bit.

That much has happened before. Just three years ago, right after the last reassessment, the mayor was boasting about a city budget that relied on an almost 15 percent increase in property tax payments without doing a thing to the tax rate.

"People should be happy that their properties are appreciating, not depreciating," Mr. Jennings was saying in 2003.

That hardly means, though, that they want to hear that again. A reassessment that comes after four years when property values shot up considerably will bring likely bad news, in the form of a higher tax bill, before it brings good news in the form of a resale of someone's property at a handsome profit.

. . . .

Only a decline in the city's property tax rate--and probably a substantial one, down from $16.79 per $1,000 for residential property and $20 per $1,000 for commercial property--can offset the impact of reassessment. (Both school taxes, the biggest portion of anyone's tax bill in Albany, and county taxes are based upon those same assessments, too, even though the city government has no control over them.)

All the more reason, then, for Mr. Jennings to pursue the redevelopment of the Harriman state office campus to get it back on the city's tax rolls. Yes, such an endeavor would increase the demand for city services. But it would mean more tax revenue, too.

Meantime, the mayor needs to keep up his very successful efforts at lobbying for more state aid for Albany. The state's payment in lieu of taxes next year will be $22.85 million, just like this year, not the $16.1 million that had been scheduled. That's almost $7 million, a fair amount of money in a city with a proposed budget of $153 million, that might have had to come from Albany taxpayers instead.

Victor expands tax break eligibility for seniors, disabled (James Goodman/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Both the village and the town of Victor have now increased the income ceiling for seniors and individuals with disabilities to qualify for a 50 percent exemption on their assessment for village and town property taxes.

The Village Board approved the expanded eligibility at its Monday night meeting. The town approved the expanded criteria a week earlier.

The 50 percent exemption means that if a person's house is assessed at $100,000, taxes would be paid on $50,000.

State legislation authorizes localities to expand the exemption, noted Wayne Pickering, assessor for the town.

The benefits of the expanded exemptions won't be realized by taxpayers until 2008.

Irondequoit budget hike proposed; Plan includes property tax increase, more for police service (Sheila Rayam/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

The proposed 2007 town budget for Irondequoit includes increased spending for police and public safety and a 1.8 percent property tax increase.

"I feel pretty good about the budget," said Irondequoit Supervisor Mary Ellen Heyman. "It provides good service, essential service, at a reasonable cost."

The $30.2 million proposed budget for next year is $383,844--or 1.3 percent--higher than the current budget of $29.8 million. Heyman attributed the increase in spending to several factors, including rising health care costs, the need to replace several town vehicles and maintaining current staffing levels.

To reduce costs, the town has already cut 13 staff positions through the elimination of jobs and department consolidation

Small tax hike for Saratoga Springs; Income from video lottery terminals and sales tax revenues help

Homeowners would see their taxes increase by 5.92 percent under a $35.6 million budget presented Tuesday night by Finance Commissioner Matthew McCabe.

Under the proposed tax rate of $5.01 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which includes the general fund and debt service, the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would see the city annual tax bill increase by $56 to $1,002.

(Hmmm. The state Budget Division estimates inflation at 3.5 percent for this year and 2.6 percent for 2007. So a tax rate that's about twice inflation is small? Well, perhaps to some taxpayers, but in a state where property taxes are already a burden, this makes us wonder: How high would taxes have to go up before this headline writer called the tax increase "big?"

Audit: City lags on 'living wage law'; Syracuse has "dropped the ball" since measure was passed last year (Greg Munno/Syracuse Post-Standard)

An audit released today found that the city has failed to implement its "living wage law."

The law, passed in May 2005, sought to guarantee decent wages for employees of companies doing business with the city.

City Auditor Philip LaTessa found, among other issues, the city had missed a key opportunity to extend the benefit of the law to dozens of workers by failing to seek bids on its expired contracts to run the eight city parking garages.

The city can force companies to provide a living wage only on contracts issued after the law was passed. The city garage contracts have been expired since 1999.

"The elected officials were very much in favor of this legislation in spirit, but since it has been passed, they have dropped the ball," LaTessa said.

{Oswego] County budget plan calls for lower taxes; Legislators cautioned that adding expenses could cause problems in the future. (Charles McChesney/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Oswego County will spend more, take in more and tax less in 2007 under the budget proposal presented Tuesday.

The tentative 2007 budget cut would result in a 12.5 percent decrease in the overall county property tax rate, said County Administrator Stephen Lyman.

Lyman presented the budget to the Legislature's Finance and Personnel Committee along with a letter explaining his thinking.

Real estate valuations have risen $400,000 in the past year, he wrote, "however using the rate as a measuring stick may be deceptive. Taxpayers are interested in one number--the amount of taxes due."

That number will vary depending on valuations and recent revaluations in towns and cities around the county. For instance, county property taxes would drop 15.39 percent in the city of Oswego, 14.02 percent in Fulton and 22.26 percent in Hastings.

However, the county property tax rate would only decline slightly, or even rise, in towns that have altered their valuation formulas. Most dramatic among these is Orwell, where a change in a complicated "equalization rate" shows the tax rate rising 49.26 percent.

[Onondaga] County Legislature to hold '07 budget hearing today (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Mr. Hevesi, again; For the second time in recent days, he's taken to task on the misuse of the public's money (editorial/Albany Times Union)

No one is suggesting this election season that New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi lacks the specialized skills to perform one of the more critical jobs in state government. The questions instead are simple enough to be of the layman's variety. For example, where is this man's common sense?

Last week should have had Mr. Hevesi especially on guard. It began with him having to repay the state some $83,000 after he was caught using a comptroller's office employee to act as a driver for his ailing wife. Only by week's end, Mr. Hevesi was scrambling to resolve another embarrassing misuse of the public's money that never should have occurred in the first place.

Both Mr. Hevesi and his suddenly more aggressive and viable challenger, Christopher Callaghan, spoke to a New York State Association of Counties conference in Lake George. When it was Mr. Callaghan's turn, Mr. Hevesi had him tape-recorded.

. . . .

The education of Mr. Hevesi is becoming rather comical. What it reveals is that another incumbent politician was so sure of his own re-election that he had next to nothing in place by way of a campaign operation. Mr. Hevesi's missteps play right into Mr. Callaghan's hands, though. At this rate, the comptroller might well have quite a campaign army in force by Election Day.

As for Mr. Callaghan, he'd be wise to spare no effort or expense taping Mr. Hevesi. Whatever will he do or say next?

Pataki signs law limiting use of eminent domain for power lines (Mike Gormley/Associated Press)

Gov. George Pataki signed a measure Tuesday that will restrict the use of eminent domain and create an obstacle to construction of a power line that would cut through upstate communities to serve New York City and its suburbs.

"Through this law, we will establish additional protections for communities across New York state," Pataki said. "These new restrictions help to clarify the rights of a community and its residents, and will uphold their interests with regard to certain projects involving eminent domain."

Central New Yorkers fighting the $1.6 billion power line said Pataki's decision strengthens their opposition to a project that was expected to rely on the eminent domain law to acquire property.

Albany-based New York Regional Interconnect Inc. has proposed a 200-mile, high-voltage transmission line from the Utica area to the lower Hudson Valley. The company says electricity demand in New York City and its suburbs is expected to outstrip supply in a few years, and a new high-capacity line is needed to bring power from central and western New York.

The company wouldn't comment, but issued a statement: "New York Regional Interconnect is a beneficial project for all of the people of New York state. We urge New Yorkers to further study NYRI and learn the truth about the many positives this project will bring to the people of this state."

Pataki signs bill, blocks power line; Law is changed to disallow using eminent domain for NYRI project (Alaina Potrikus/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Gov. George Pataki has thrown a huge roadblock in the path of a private developer who wants to run a 190-mile-long power line through thousands of backyards in Central New York.

Pataki signed a bill Tuesday amending a state law that currently allows gas and electric companies to use the power of eminent domain when siting new projects. The legislation effectively quashes a $1.6 billion proposal by New York Regional Interconnect on the state level, making the project "impractical and virtually impossible to build," Pataki said.

The governor came out strongly against the NYRI proposal, saying it would tear communities apart, threaten the environment and hinder economic development.

"The people of Oneida County, the Mohawk Valley, Central New York and the Southern Tier understand this power line is wrong for New York, and I am signing this legislation to prevent it," Pataki said at a news conference at the SUNY Institute of Technology in Marcy, just north of the city of Utica, where the proposed power line would start.

NYRI released the following statement shortly before the event: "(The line) is a beneficial project for all the people of New York state. We urge New Yorkers to further study NYRI and learn the truth about the many positives this project will bring to the people of this state." The company would not comment further.

. . . .

Pataki's approval of the bill didn't turn out the lights for the power line. The project is currently being reviewed by the state's Public Service Commission, and some local officials worry that NYRI could challenge the state law in court.

And there's another hurdle on the federal level. In March, NYRI applied to the U.S. Department of Energy for designation as a "national interest electric transmission corridor." In such designated areas, federal regulators can overrule state officials and give developers power of eminent domain.

Gov. stalls power line plan (Elizabeth Cooper/Utica Observer-Dispatch)

As he signed a bill that would block the New York Regional Interconnect power company from using eminent domain, Gov. George Pataki said the proposed 1,200 megawatt power line is done for as far as the state is concerned.

"You will no longer have to worry about this power line tearing this community apart," the governor said at the signing Tuesday at SUNYIT's Kunsela Hall. He also characterized the proposal as "wrong for New York."

The company's application with the state's Public Service Commission could proceed, but, Pataki said, "without eminent domain, it would be virtually impossible to build."

The bill would not prevent the company from using eminent domain if its route ends up falling within a designated National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. In those zones, federal law would trump state decisions relating to power transmission lines. The federal government is in the process of deciding whether and where to create such corridors.

New York Regional Interconnect issued a brief statement Tuesday.

"New York Regional Interconnection is a beneficial project for all of New York State," the statement reads. "We urge all New Yorkers to study NYRI and learn the truth about the many positives this project will bring to the people of the state."

Pataki Signs Bill Limiting the Use of Eminent Domain to Build High-Voltage Power Lines (Anthony DePalma/New York Times)

The new law restricts the use of eminent domain to build certain high-voltage electricity transmission lines, particularly the 190-mile-long proposed line that would run from Utica in upstate New York to the Hudson Valley, and from there into New York City and Long Island.

City officials have said such a line is needed if the city is to avoid power breakdowns caused by congestion. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sent a letter to the governor earlier this year asking him to veto the bill.

By limiting the use of eminent domain, the law would make it hard for the private company planning to build the line, the New York Regional Interconnect, to gain control of the land it needs in 37 towns and villages in seven counties throughout the state.

The new law represents an ideological departure for Mr. Pataki, who has supported energy deregulation and advocated business development throughout his tenure.

. . . .

The company [proposing the powerline] estimates that the project would save consumers more than $500 million a year, although it concedes that decreases in downstate electricity prices would be accompanied by energy price increases upstate.

Clear the air: Less secrecy in Albany is key in spotting conflicts of interest (editorial/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

One facet of reform in the state Legislature has been the posting on Assembly and Senate Web sites of public funds funneled to projects and institutions in legislative districts. Lawmakers trumpeted this as an advance toward openness.

But this change is half-baked--the posting is done after the votes are cast and the awards are made. Applications for millions in member-item money should be made public before the votes and before the awards are made. It should be clear to New Yorkers what's being sought by whom and which legislators will end up carrying the pork to the table once the decisions are made.

Moreover, before these awards are made, the Legislature should be fully open about the relationships, if any, between lawmakers and the constituents to be served. That's not the case now. And the murkiness is now enveloping at least one local legislator.

For many years, Sen. Jim Alesi's business, Allstate Coin Laundries Inc., has had contracts with Rochester Institute of Technology and Nazareth College, schools to which the lawmaker has brought millions in public dollars. There's nothing amiss on the face of this. State legislators are part time, and most have outside employment. The money brought to the schools has been for worthy projects.

. . . .

What raises doubt is the lack of transparency about these connections. Alesi's involvement with RIT and Nazareth is beyond simple entanglement. His business benefits from the relationships.

The public should know about this sort of relationship before taxpayer dollars are appropriated. And that applies to all lawmakers, not just Alesi.

The latest from the political arena

A pullet surprise for Hevesi (editorial/Daily News)

. . . . Likewise up by 30 points over the GOP's Chris Callaghan, and resting comfortably on $6 million in campaign funds (compared with Callaghan's $43,000), Hevesi has refused to commit to debate his little-known challenger.

It was Callaghan, until recently treasurer of Saratoga County, who uncovered the fact that Hevesi ripped off the taxpayers for more than $80,000 by having a state worker chauffeur his wife, Carol, on private business. What a nice debating point that would make, assuming that Hevesi has the guts to look Callaghan and the voters in the eye.

Queried about Hevesi's plans yesterday, his campaign issued the following statement: "Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck."

Double trouble (editorial/Syracuse Post-Standard)

A dogged comptroller, known for his revealing audits in the hunt for wasted taxpayer dollars, Hevesi has repaid $82,000 to the state--reimbursement for using a state employee as a driver for his disabled wife.

J. Christopher Callaghan, Hevesi's little-known opponent, brought the matter to light last week, and the comptroller has profusely apologized ever since. But what disturbs is why Hevesi would even think his actions were appropriate, given his position and passion for identifying misuse of tax dollars.

Hevesi said he consulted the state Ethics Commission and was advised that a driver would acceptable if the service was for security-related purposes. Hevesi has said security issues contributed to his decision to use the driver.

But it's hard to imagine what kind of security threats a state comptroller and his wife would face.

No one would deny Hevesi that he and his wife may be facing great challenges; but state taxpayers cannot underwrite the services to meet them.

And although the comptroller says he is "abjectly apologetic," it is not clear whether he would have even addressed the matter, had he not been exposed by his Republican opponent. Would he have dismissed such behavior by other state officials?

Watchdog groups say Hevesi should be penalized in driver scandal (Mark Johnson/Associated Press)

An alert reader points out that while this New York Times story reports some statistics from a Times/CBS joint poll, it buries some other numbers. Specifically, the Times story calls attention to the results that show:

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic candidate for governor, is making inroads both in Republican strongholds and on traditional Republican issues, with voters seeing him as the most likely to improve the economy, help avert terrorism and hold taxes steady or lower them, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

But, our reader points out, several more interesting results from the poll are not highlighted in the Times story. Our reader found the details from the poll results, posted separately online in PDF format.

The Times poll asked "Of all the problems facing New York State, which one do you want the next governor to concentrate on most?" The top answer: Taxes, identified by 20 percent of registered voters. After dropping to just 9 percent in 2002, the percentage citing taxes as their main concern is back up to levels last seen (by the Times poll) back in 1994. Only education, at 18 percent, is close on the list of problems. None of the other choices picked up more than a few percentage points.

The Times story on the poll results did call attention to the fact that less than one-quarter of voters polled identified tax increases as the way to close possible state budget gaps. Thirty-two percent prefer to cut programs.

Tale of 2 Schools Suggests Money Can't Buy Success (Sarah Garland/New York Sun)

Queensbury, a small town in the Adirondacks, spends less money on each student than any other public school district in the state. Bridgehampton, a resort town in Long Island, spends six times as much. But when it comes to statewide test scores, it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

In Queensbury, which spent $8,553 per student in the 2004?05 school year, more than 80% of fourth-graders passed state reading exams that same year and more than 90% passed the math tests. The same is true of Bridgehampton, which spends $51,828 on each student, according to a July 2005 state report to the governor and the legislature.

The comparison raises a fundamental question coming to a head next week in what may be the last hearing in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit: Does money matter when it comes to student performance?

Supporters of the lawsuit, which was filed in 1993 to force the state to spend more on New York City public schools to remedy inequities, say it does.

"You can't do anything if you don't have the money," the senior economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, Trudi Renwick, said. "But it has to be well spent and well distributed."

In contrast, the lawsuit's opponents, who are coming out with a book this week outlining their case, say money has nothing to do with improving student performance.

"What we've found over time is that money is neither necessary nor sufficient to ensure high performance," a senior economist at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Eric Hanushek, said. He is the editor of "Courting Failure," a book coming out Monday that is critical of lawsuits like the Campaign for Fiscal Equity.

"Some schools spend a lot and get good performance and some spend a lot and get bad performance," he said. "If you go ahead and try to adjust for what the kids look like. ? It doesn't help the picture, you get the same picture."

. . . .

An analyst at the Manhattan Institute, Sol Stern, who is a contributor to "Courting Failure," says that even as spending per pupil doubled in New York City over the past decade, performance hasn't improved.

"If you watch what happened in New York City education budgets, you'll see that pupil spending went up," he said. "And eighth grade reading scores are as flat as they ever were."

The lawsuit's supporters respond that it's not just how much money, but how you spend it ? and the debate goes on.

AXA deal stalled by garage question; Spaces for 600 vehicles in city parking facilities latest bump in lease negotiations (Greg Munno/Syracuse Post-Standard)

The city may not be able to offer all the incentives the owners of AXA Towers have asked for as part of an effort to get AXA Financial Inc. to sign a new lease that would keep its 950 employees downtown.

Earlier this week, representatives of Towers Realty Statutory Trust said they were close to a deal with AXA, but needed help from the city to make it work, including guaranteed use of up to 600 parking spaces in nearby city-owned garages.

Wednesday, the Common Council got its first look at the legislation to provide the incentives, and members voiced several questions and concerns.

Revving up the biosciences to drive new economic engine (op-ed/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Bioscience is alive and well in western New York. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Geneva and Ithaca are all centers of excellence in bioscience with vigorous programs in their colleges and universities, and companies based on novel bioscience technology are cropping up all over the region.

Western New York is rightly famous for its success with thin film technology, harnessed by George Eastman more than 100 years ago, and currently being applied to various other applications. These include protecting patients from any harm resulting from the interaction between implanted devices, such as pacemakers, and MRIs.

. . . .

The Greater Rochester BioCluster, a subset of the High Tech Business Council, believes in the cluster concept. Business development occurs most readily in an environment in which complementary organizations and companies get together to pursue common goals. Rochester has put together most of the components of a pharmaceutical cluster capable of discovering disease treatments. However, we still need an adequate forum for our investors and entrepreneurs to meet, the required "wet" lab facilities for startup companies and, of course, funding, which is lacking.

With all this in mind, today and Friday, up to 240 members of our regional bioscience community are assembling in Rochester for the first Western New York Bioscience Summit at the Clarion Riverside Hotel.

As Rochester moves from an economy based on manufacturing of products invented by physical scientists toward a knowledge-driven economy based on the biological sciences, this pioneering conference will be an auspicious event in our region's development.

Bridge building; UR's $40 million NIH grant holds promise for the region (editorial/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

The $40 million National Institutes of Health grant to the University of Rochester is a major step forward for this community. It helps to elevate UR to the top rung of America's research universities. And it potentially adds another lane to the already existing bridge from the laboratory to commerce that is part of this region's economic future.

But, as this page said in its recent series "Reworking Rochester: Jobs for the Future," the bridge will not be fully built until the research energies displayed at UR and other local universities and colleges, fueled by NIH and other grants, is matched by support from government and private investors.

. . . .

This is an exciting opportunity for the university, which is now the area's largest employer.

But it's a challenge, too, to translate UR's research prominence into an economic boon for the region.

Area wineries ready for biggest weekend; Grape harvest, fall foliage expected to attract thousands of tourists (Jennifer Kingsley/Elmira Star-Gazette)

The crush is on and Finger Lakes wineries are ready for their biggest weekend of the year.

It's the time of year when field managers harvest their grapes and winemakers anticipate creating fine wines. It's also one of those times when thousands of tourists flock to Schuyler County.

That it happens to be Columbus Day weekend, everyone agrees, is just a coincidence.

"This weekend is always the biggest. I don't think it has anything to do with Columbus Day," said Jess Kilcoyne, 32, co-owner of Catharine Valley Winery on state Route 414 near Hector. "People come for the grape harvest and the turning of the leaves. It's a beautiful time to visit the region."

"The foliage is expected to be brilliant, right on time to peak this weekend," said Michelle L. Benjamin, Schuyler County director of tourism.

While the exact number of tourists is anyone's guess, Benjamin said her office is fielding a high number of calls from people having trouble finding rooms.

"That means our lodging facilities are filling up for the weekend," Benjamin said. "One thing I've noticed is that tourist season is stretching longer and longer each year. It's almost year-round."

Job fair attracts hopeful applicants (Tory N. Parrish/Utica Observer-Dispatch)

Ithaca's hotel room boom: Growth expected to continue into '07 (Andrew Tutino.ijj)

Tompkins County is projected to add more than 100 hotel rooms in 2007, the second consecutive year the county has seen the number of rooms increase by triple digits.

Statistics provided by the Ithaca/Tompkins Convention and Visitors Bureau show 1,794 projected rooms in the county for 2007, up from 1,646 in 2006 and 1,518 in 2005.

The hotel room boom is driven by increased demand, tourist officials say, as consumer data show this area needed more hotel rooms to meet the number of tourists visiting, said Fred Bonn, the director of the bureau.

"When you take a look at the Tompkins County economy, we are quite fortunate to have an extremely healthy economy," Bonn said. "We have done a good job at marketing Ithaca and the Finger Lakes region. We are seeing significant increase in business throughout the region. We are able to ride that success."

BU hopes complex spawns jobs; Newly unveiled lab a breeding ground for innovation (My-Ly Nguyen/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

In new labs and offices at Binghamton University's Innovative Technologies Complex, researchers are hard at work creating and developing high-tech initiatives that could mean spin-off companies, partnerships with area businesses and more research grants and faculty.

"We are committed to expanding our innovative research," BU President Lois B. DeFleur said. "We are committed to expanding our partnerships with firms and other organizations in the Southern Tier. The future is ahead of us."

On Tuesday, university officials and regional business and political leaders celebrated the formal opening of the complex's first building, a 92,000-square-foot facility housing labs and offices dedicated to advancing multidisciplinary research in biomedicine, bioengineering, biosensors and biotechnology.

Construction on a second building, adjacent to the first and similar in size, is expected to begin in about 12 to 18 months, with completion scheduled for 2010 or 2011, said Gerald Sonnenfeld, BU's vice president for research and professor of biological sciences. Funding for the $66 million engineering and science facility was secured from the state earlier this year with support from state Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell.

Investment in the university, biotechnology and engineering is exactly what BC Plan author and economic development consultant Angelos Angelou of Texas-based AngelouEconomics has said the area needs to prosper.

Applied research conducted at the facility will find its way to the market in five years, Sonnenfeld said. An initial goal is to spin off three companies a year, he said.

American Axle offers buyouts to UAW workers (Associated Press)

Auto supplier American Axle is adding to the wave of buyouts sweeping the industry with a range of incentives for about 6,000 hourly workers at five plants, the company announced Wednesday.

. . . .

American Axle said it expects to spend $150 million to $250 million in 2006 on the program and other restructuring measures.

The buyouts and early retirement deals are being offered at plants located in Detroit; Three Rivers, Mich.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Tonawanda, N.Y.; and Cheektowaga, N.Y. The offers are for workers represented by the United Auto Workers, and there about 6,000 of them at those plants, company spokeswoman Carrie Gray said.

The offers range from a $50,000 incentive for retirement-eligible workers and $100,000 buyouts for workers with more than 10 years of service to an education incentive of two or four years for tuition and living expenses.

The state will put $21 million into hydrogen generating stations in Western New York, the Buffalo News reports.

The initiative is based on electricity from the Niagara Power Project in Lewiston, which will power the extraction of hydrogen from water.

The board of the New York Power Authority approved the "hydropower-to-hydrogen" plan Tuesday, and Pataki is expected to formally announce it today. Transit buses and state fleet vehicles are among the possible hydrogen-consuming vehicles.

"It puts New York State in the cutting edge of this clean-fuel technology," Power Authority spokesman Michael Saltzman said.

Details of the plan released Tuesday envision two fueling stations at undetermined locations, potentially at Niagara Falls State Park and at locations operated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.

By the time two hydrogen generating stations are complete, expected within three years, they will produce the equivalent of 120 gallons of fuel a day, the project anticipates.

The Buffalo News reports that:

HSBC North America Holdings' $166 million data center project will likely bring more technology companies and jobs to Western New York to support it, officials said Wednesday.

The parent of HSBC Bank USA, together with Gov. George Pataki and other national, state, and local political leaders, formally confirmed before a sea of television cameras that it will spend $69 million to build a new 275,000-square-foot facility in Niagara County. The exact location has yet to be decided, but Pendleton is in the lead among at least four possible rural sites.

The bank will spend another $70 million on technology for the new building, and $27 million to upgrade a smaller facility on Park Club Lane in Amherst that was constructed in 2001. And it will spend more than $100 million a year for 15 years - over $1.5 billion in all - to keep the technology updated.

That technology capacity, in turn, will require enormous tech support from computer equipment makers and vendors, such as Sun Microsystems, IBM Corp., and others, bank officials said during the press conference at the Amherst Chamber of Commerce.

Those firms will likely set up field offices here, in surrounding buildings, to service HSBC's needs, creating new technology jobs locally and moving installation, maintenance, repair and other technicians from other parts of the country.

Today's economy requires some level of cooperation between unions and management, the Buffalo News says in an editorial.

The UAW has granted concessions to both GM and Ford, although it has recently announced that it will not deal with Chrysler because it did not see the company as being in that bad financial shape. The union has a primary duty to take care of its members, but it also sees long-term survivability as a better path to that end than hard-nosed intransigence.

Ford, Chrysler and GM all are trying to remake themselves in a competitive global market, with gas prices making big-box cars less attractive to consumers. As Ford and GM pin some of their hopes on crossover cars and gas-sippers, instead of gas-guzzlers, change will continue to drive the future - and it will also drive the need for continued cooperation between unions and management for the sake of both.

More: The editorial is especially timely, considering the other news reported today in the Buffalo News. First:

By this afternoon, more than 12,000 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. employees - including 1,200 at the Dunlop Tire plant in the Town of Tonawanda - may be locked out of their jobs or could go on strike if the company and the United Steelworkers of America don't agree on a new contract.

The union, which said it was determined to avoid plant shutdowns, said it would terminate a day-to-day contract with Goodyear at 1 p.m. today if an agreement wasn't reached. The old three-year contract expired July 22.

And:

American Axle & Manufacturing is offering buyouts of up to $100,000 to trim an expensive overhang of idle workers, the company announced Wednesday - but it's unclear whether the cost-cutting move will help preserve its half-empty plant in Buffalo.

With U.S. automakers hitting the brakes on production, parts supplier American Axle has about 1,400 workers laid-off nationwide who collect up to 95 percent of their regular pay under a contractual unemployment benefit, company officials said.

The buyout negotiated with the United Auto Workers is open to 6,000 U.S. production workers, including including about 1,750 at three plants in Western New York - in Buffalo, Cheektowaga and the Town of Tonawanda.

Politics has nothing to do with food lab (letter/Albany Times Union)

A Sept. 23 article contained quotes from people who unfairly characterized Gov. George Pataki's announcement of a $40 million state-of-the-art food lab in Geneva, Ontario County, as having been politically motivated. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Geneva site was chosen to further solidify the Cornell Agriculture and Food Technology Park's national standing and reputation as a major research center for agri-business, food sciences and biotechnology and to enable the food lab to fully optimize the resources, technology, expertise, and research assets of Cornell University.

Economy to make halting headway; Local experts see hopeful signs for '07 despite continuing drags (Ben Rand/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Greater Rochester's economy is likely to show improvement in 2007 but will again face ongoing layoffs at Eastman Kodak Co. and other factors, according to two local forecasters.

Gary Keith, regional economist at M&T Bank, and Kent E. Gardner, president and chief executive of the Center for Governmental Research, told more than 450 people Wednesday that they expect Rochester to continue to be a tale of two economies in the next 12 months.

One economy consists of job sectors that are growing and projects that show great promise, such as this week's $40 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to the University of Rochester for a new research center.

The other covers the continued shrinkage of the region's manufacturing base, which has historically been the engine of growth for upstate New York.

The problem is that the two sets of economic factors "are not balanced. You want growth to exceed the declines," Gardner said at the annual State of Rochester's Economy luncheon sponsored by the Rochester Downtown Development Corp. But, he said, "that will come," and he described the ebbs and flows here as a "temporary state of affairs."

One reason for optimism, M&T's Keith said, is the bank's annual survey of local chief executive officers. M&T's survey this year drew 132 responses, Keith said, with 38 percent indicating they were likely to increase production and 42 percent indicating they were likely to add jobs in the next 12 months.

Thanks for the tax rebate. It's too bad my assessment wipes it out, one Buffalo-area resident tells lawmakers in a letter to the Buffalo News.

Property assessments in the town were raised in early May and June - all done in time so that the property tax rebate program instituted by Gov. George Pataki could be erased quicker than the ink of his signature took to dry.

Every last official should hide in shame for putting such a burden on property homeowners.

School bills reflect higher tax increase (letter/Poughkeepsie Journal)

By now the school tax bills for Hyde Park have been sent out and received. What a surprise to see the 8.49 percent increase is now an 11.3 percent increase.

Forget about the superintendent of schools getting a $20,000 raise, or all her staff getting double-digit raises; compare what was presented to you to vote on and what did or did not happen when school opened.

Where are the cuts in the staff positions presented? What about the half-day extended program scheduled to begin in January, the elimination of the assistant principal for FDR and all the other commitments made to voters in the budget proposition of June 21? You are not getting what you voted on, and in my world this is fraud.

Democrat Could Aid Charter School Push (Jill Gardiner/New York Sun)

The state senator poised to take over the Democratic leadership in his house could add momentum to the statewide push for additional charter schools.

Senator Malcolm Smith, the founder of two charter schools in his Queens district, has joined Republicans to champion a lifting of the current charter school cap, which now stands at 100.

Top senate Democrats, union leaders, and other prominent elected officials from the party are scheduled to endorse Mr. Smith as the new minority leader this morning at City Hall.

While some say he is cut from the same political cloth as the outgoing Democratic minority leader, David Patterson, who is running for lieutenant governor, the party chose Mr. Smith over Senator Eric Schneiderman, who is considered more liberal.

Charter school advocates viewed Mr. Smith's ascension as a harbinger of political change.

"I think it signals a shift in the Democratic Party, that it is no longer monolithically, knee-jerk supportive of the teachers union," the president of the Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability, Thomas Carroll, said. Mr. Carroll said Mr. Smith and with the leading candidate for governor, Eliot Spitzer, could put pressure on the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, who has resisted on the charter school issue.

Democrats and Republicans alike acknowledge that Mr. Smith is more conservative than many members of his party's caucus--not just on charter schools, but on social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. Also, he has supported Republicans running for elective office.

"Make no doubt about it, he continues to have a conservative philosophy," state Senator Martin Golden, a Republican, said. "We feel and I feel that it's a breath of fresh air to see a Democrat coming there not following a philosophical divide."

Gas prices still pumped up; The dropping costs haven't come here yet (Brian Dunlop/Middletown Times Herald-Record)

Gas prices in neighboring states and counties have fallen sharply in recent weeks, but drivers in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties wonder: When do we get a break at the pump?

The average national price of a gallon of regular gasoline reached $2.279 yesterday, according to msn.com's price finder, but local stations continue to charge anywhere from $2.539 to $2.899 a gallon. Regular unleaded at the Citgo in Montague, N.J., meanwhile, was $2.199.

Gasoline has been cheaper in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for years because of different tax structures, but the spread has usually been 20 cents at most--not 35 to 60 cents.

"I was shocked there would be a 60-cents difference," said Anna-Marie Noe, an Orange County resident who buys all her gas in the area unless she knows she is headed into New Jersey. "Usually, there is only a 15-cent difference."

Visitors to the area have noticed the high prices, as well. Long Island resident Jim Bernhard was surprised at the price he saw at Citgo on Dolson Avenue in Middletown. "Gas is usually cheaper in Orange County than what we've got," he said.

State Senate candidates Valesky, Brown face off (Alaina Potrikus/Syracuse Post-Standard)

The candidates for the 49th Senate District faced off for the first time Wednesday night before a crowd of about 100 at a forum sponsored by AARP at the senior citizens center in Manlius. Incumbent Sen. David Valesky, a Democrat from Oneida, went head-to-head with Manlius Republican Jeff Brown, who has given up his Assembly seat to campaign for the Senate.

The discussion initially centered on topics important to senior citizens, including prescription drugs, long-term care and consumer protection issues. But the discourse quickly turned to other topics, including tort reform, the preservation of green space, rising school taxes and the death penalty.

. . . .

"We need to change the status quo in Albany and make sure Upstate comes first," said Brown.

Asked to offer examples of how he planned to make a difference in office, Brown offered his plan to cap school taxes and property assessments at the rate of inflation.

"Some years it's 2 percent; some years it's 20 percent," said Brown, who looked down at a pile of notes several times throughout the evening. "That has to stop."

More politics

GOP figures feast with Spitzer (Frederic Pierce/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Only one of the top five contributors to Wednesday's Syracuse fundraiser for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer was eligible to vote for him in the Democratic Party primary.

Three of the event's five platinum sponsors--supporters who paid varying amounts above $5,000 for a steak dinner at the OnCenter and a semi-private reception with Spitzer--are Republicans. Those generous GOP guests included prominent local developers Bob Congel and Mike Falcone, as well as Joshua Heintz of the Devorsetz and Stinziano law firm, according to a list of party "hosts" included on an invitation.

The other platinum hosts were John Langan, a partner in the Hiscock & Barclay law firm who is enrolled in the Independence Party, and Steve Aiello, a Democrat and a partner in COR Development.

A rung below those contributors--at the $5,000 "gold" level--about a quarter of the donors whose party affiliation could be determined Wednesday were Republicans. All 29 gold donors were given a special ticket for a more intimate, roughly half-hour reception with Spitzer, who has run on a platform of reform and promised to end the "pay-to-play" culture of Albany.

Poll suggests Spitzer runaway in gubernatorial race (Gannett News Service)

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer has widened his lead over Republican John Faso to more than 50 percentage points, setting the stage for what could be an unprecedented runaway election.

Among registered voters, Spitzer leads 69 percent to 18 percent, compared with a 65-17 spread in the last Quinnipiac poll.

State Republicans Are Facing An Election Day Shutout (Henry Goldman/New York Sun)

The New York Republican Party, which once proudly gave the state Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas E. Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller, is on the verge of giving it--well, nobody.

Five weeks before Election Day, Republican candidates trail in polls for every statewide race on the ballot, risking their first complete shutout since 1938. The party's best hope this year, attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro, last week managed to dominate headlines for the wrong reason: She confirmed she is under criminal investigation for considering bugging her husband, whom she suspected of having an affair.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Clinton is so far ahead in polls that most comment about her centers on a possible presidential race in 2008. And Democrat Eliot Spitzer is similarly running away with the race to succeed Republican Governor Pataki, who isn't running again.

. . . .

Once upon a time, there was no more vigorous font of Republican ideas and energy in the nation. New York Republicans in the 19th and much of the 20th century represented a desire for zealous reform of a political system dominated by the powerful and corrupt New York City Democratic machine known by the name of its headquarters building, Tammany Hall.

The spirit was captured by such figures as Mr. Roosevelt, governor from 1899 to 1900 and later, as president of the United States, who took on big business to curb monopolistic abuses.

Mr. Dewey, best remembered today for being the loser in the biggest presidential upset in American history, was the Rudy Giuliani of his day--parlaying his reputation as a rackets-busting prosecutor into three terms as governor from 1943 to 1954 as well as the presidential nominations in 1944 and 1948.

Then came Mr. Rockefeller, scion of one of the nation's wealthiest families. Elected governor a record four times, he promoted civil rights and social-welfare programs.

The seeds of the Republicans' current malaise were sown under Mr. Rockefeller, observers say. With Tammany's demise, state politics shifted from issues of reform versus machine to a more ideological focus. Mr. Rockefeller's brand of liberal Republicanism, increasingly out of step with a national party turning more conservative, began drawing more criticism even in New York.

Since 1974, a year after Rockefeller left Albany, no Republican has won statewide without the support of the tiny Conservative Party, whose power lies in its ability to split the conservative vote if Republicans nominate someone not to its liking.

The problem for Republicans is that while conservative clout was rising within the party, it was waning statewide.

There's much more.

Hevesi's approval rating drops after scandal (Mark Johnson/Associated Press)

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's job approval rating dropped 8 percentage points after he acknowledged failing to pay the cost of using a state employee as a chauffeur for his ailing wife, according to a statewide poll released Wednesday.

The Quinnipiac University poll had Hevesi's approval rating among registered voters falling to 37 percent from 45 percent in June. His approval rating peaked at 47 percent in March. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

Hevesi's disapproval rating rose to 23 percent from 18 percent. Forty percent of those polled had no opinion of Hevesi, who is finishing his first term in an office that usually attracts little public attention.

. . . .

Despite the bad publicity, Hevesi still leads Republican challenger J. Christopher Callaghan 59 percent to 21 percent in his bid for a second four-year term as the state's chief financial officer, the poll found.

Callaghan, who revealed Hevesi's use of the driver by calling a hot line set up by Hevesi to report the misuse of taxpayer funds, still remains largely unknown. Eighty-eight percent of voters polled said they had no opinion of him.

Hevesi's going in reverse (Ken Lovett/New York Post)

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's popularity dropped 8 percentage points following the disclosure that a state employee was chauffeuring the incumbent Democrat's wife on the state dime, a new poll shows.

But even with his approval rating at its lowest point of the year, the Quinnipiac University poll shows that Hevesi still holds a commanding 59-21 lead over little-known Republican Christopher Callaghan in a poll that includes those registered voters leaning toward a candidate.

Do they think we're stupid? (letter/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

I hope New York taxpayers are not as stupid as our governor and the state Legislature seem to think.

Sure, I'm going to deposit the property-tax rebate check I just received. I'll need it to keep paying my share of the growing state debt burden to which this rebate is adding.

Our benefactors (Pataki, Bruno, Silver and state senators and Assemblymen) must now borrow millions more to pay for their "generosity." We will have to pay that back, with interest, over the years to come.

This "rebate" was timed to arrive just before elections so our representatives could brag about all they've done for us. They haven't earned any points with me. It's well past time to dump the incumbents and get some new faces in the Legislature.

Electric bills have you seeing red? Blame Gov. Pataki (Bill Hammond column/Daily News)

The next time Con Ed rates go through the roof, you should curse Gov. Pataki's name under your breath. And when another heat wave brings another blackout, mutter his name then, too.

That's because Pataki has just sold out the 8 million electric customers of New York City to boost the campaigns of his upstate GOP pals. When the history of his administration is written, this will go down as one of its low points.

Backtracking on his own energy policy and ignoring the pleas of Mayor Bloomberg, Pataki signed legislation Tuesday aimed at blocking construction of a 1,200 megawatt power line from Utica to the northern suburbs of New York City.

The project was designed to pipe electricity from upstate, where it's relatively cheap and plentiful, to the chronically juice-starved Con Ed service area, where residents and businesses pay the highest rates in the continental U.S.--about twice the national average. On top of cutting costs, the new electric lines would also relieve a major bottleneck in the power grid, reducing the chance of blackouts in the future.

For those benefits, taxpayers wouldn't pay a dime. The sponsor, a company called New York Regional Interconnect, is ready to put up $1.6 billion of its own money.

. . . .

Predictably and understandably, the not-in-my-back-yard opposition to this project has been fierce. Predictably and understandably, politicians from the affected area have been doing their best to shut the thing off.

Predictably and shamefully, Pataki and other officials who should be thinking about the bigger picture have instead pandered to the NIMBYs.

It started with members of the Assembly and Senate, who overwhelmingly voted to prohibit the use of eminent domain for this one project. Among those slapping the faces of Con Ed customers were plenty of legislators from New York City. Senate Republican Leader Joe Bruno also granted $1 million in state funds to local officials fighting the project in court.

It was up to Pataki to be the grownup. He should have vetoed the bill--and reminded everyone that the proper place to debate the pros and cons of a power line is the Public Service Commission, which has the expertise and the duty to do what's best for the entire state.

Instead, Pataki put his name on the thing. And, to make his political motives crystal clear, he staged the signing ceremony in Utica, where Republican state Sen. Ray Meier--a leading opponent of the Interconnect--is in a tight race for a seat in Congress.

. . . .

Meantime, the energy industry has received the message loud and clear: Try to do business in New York, and state officials could pull the plug on you at any time.

We respectfully dissent on some counts. First, it is, at best, incomplete to argue that Upstate opposition to this proposed powerline is mere NIMBYism. In fact, it is undisputed that this powerline would have the effect of reducing very high electricity costs in New York City and raising lower but still high electricity costs Upstate. Upstate's long- and short-term job growth has been awful compared to New York City's, and high job-creation costs, including Upstate electricity costs, are widely recognized as deserving the blame. Upstate has a legitimate economic-policy argument for being concerned about this proposed powerline, and that argument has nothing in common with NIMBYism.

What's more, New York City's electricity problems are caused or, at a minimum, worsened, by a well-documented regional BANANA-ism (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything) when it comes to power plants and transmission projects. Yes, there are Upstate New Yorkers who are concerned about the likelihood that this powerline would foul the landscape. But a blast against Upstate NIMBY concerns that is not modulated by an acknowledgement that New York City shares some guilt on this count again strikes us as, well, incomplete.

NY'S tax test; Faso raises vital issue (Nicole Gelinas column/New York Post)

New York voters who accept the inevitability of an Eliot Spitzer governorship risk creating a second inevitability: that the state will continue to limp along hobbled by some of the highest income taxes in the nation. Spitzer's opponent, John Faso, offers at least a faint hope of altering that course.

New York's state and local income taxes rank No. 1 in America, according to the Tax Foundation. The state's top rate, nearly 7 percent, hits couples with gross incomes starting at about $55,000 (with taxable income of $40,000). This rate is among the top quarter nationwide, and it snares a good chunk of a New York family's income: more than $4,000 a year for a family earning just shy of six figures.

High income taxes also punish New York's jobs and tax base by encouraging high-income and aspiring high-income entrepreneurs to start their businesses elsewhere: Why start a new company near Buffalo when you can launch it in Texas or Florida, at an income-tax rate of zero?

Faso recognizes that high income taxes are a serious problem for New York, and he's got a straightforward way to fix it: Cut them.

. . . .

. . . . To create a climate for new business investment, Faso would eliminate New York's capital-gains, dividends and estate taxes--making the state far friendlier to capital investment. And to attract higher-income earners, he'd kill an obscure provision that levies the top rate on all their taxable income--effectively giving them an added tax cut.

With Albany and localities paying so much attention to public-employee benefits, the Census Bureau's latest data on state and local government pensions are worth noting. They show that government workers in New York contribute far less toward their retirement, but collect more in pension benefits, than their counterparts in most other states. Our analysis of them, which we're releasing today, is here.

Local property taxes rank high; Burden in Monroe, Wayne is among nation's biggest as share of home value (Jim Fitzgerald/Associated Press)

Homeowners in the suburban counties closest to New York City--Westchester and Nassau--pay the highest property taxes in the nation, a Census Bureau survey shows.

But when counties were ranked based on taxes as a percentage of home value, a different group of New York counties topped the nation: Niagara, Monroe, Onondaga, Wayne and Chautauqua were the top five.

A table posted online Wednesday by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group, showed that the median tax paid for an owner-occupied house in Westchester was $7,337 last year, highest in the nation. Nassau was second at $7,025. The median means half of all homeowners pay higher taxes--and as million-dollar evaluations became common, so did annual property tax bills exceeding $20,000.

The rest of the top 10 counties, in order, were Hunterdon, Bergen and Essex in New Jersey; Rockland in New York; Morris and Somerset in New Jersey; Putnam in New York; and Union in New Jersey.

Twenty of the 21 most highly taxed counties were in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the survey showed, and most of those were tightly clustered around New York City.

. . . .

The Tax Foundation compiled the table and the rankings with data from the Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey, an annual survey of 3 million households, or about 2.5 percent of the population. The figures, therefore, are from the homeowners, not from actual tax collections.

Broome property taxes 18th in U.S.; Survey calculates rates as percentage of home value (Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

By One Measure, Property Taxes Among Highest in U.S. (John Mariani/Syracuse Post-Standard)

[Chautaqua] County Ranks Near Top In Nation For Tax Burden (Jamestown Post-Journal)

[Chautauqua] County Satisfied With $15M Capital Projects Budget (Dennis Phillips/Jamestown Post-Journal)

A $15 million capital projects budget for 2007 seems to be satisfactory for county legislators and County Executive Greg Edwards.

On Wednesday, the Public Facilities and Audit and Control committees discussed 2007 capital projects, with Robert Anderson, D-Frewsburg and Public Facilities Committee chairman, saying the county is making the appropriate investment.

"I think for a county our size, knowing times are still difficult with the rise in fuel cost and the rise in building materials, it's about what we can afford to do," he said. "We always wish there was room for a wish list of things we would like to see done."

Edwards said the capital projects budget was determined after analysis was done by the county's Planning Board, which is a group of volunteers that spent many hours looking into potential projects.

Peterson's city budget nearly $52M; Tax levy to increase by 6.1%; public works to get a boost (Jennie Daley and David Hill/Ithaca Journal)

Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson proposed a 2007 budget for the city that focuses on boosting the Department of Public Works and customer-service operations.

Peterson said Wednesday that the budget is designed to address problems seen in the city including neglected infrastructure, crumbling buildings and diminished service to the public.

To meet these needs and the rest of city costs, the mayor's proposal includes a 6.1 percent increase in the tax levy and a 2.3 percent increase in the tax rate. For the average home in the city, which is estimated at $145,000, this would mean an additional $43 in city taxes next year for a bill totaling $1,966, according to City Controller Steve Thayer.

Total spending in 2007 would be $51.83 million. Of that, $300,000 would be added to the public works budget, with the same amount allotted in each of the next four years.

"We can have a zero-percent increase in the tax levy and a zero-percent increase in the tax rate but, after talking to the community, I've made the decision that to stop any work on the roads or sidewalks or to cut firefighters is not in the community's interest," Peterson said.

Oneida County budget unveiled today (Elizabeth Cooper/Utica Observer-Dispatch)

Oneida County residents will find out today what County Executive Joseph A. Griffo's fiscal plan for 2007 is.

Last year's budget totaled $321.83 million, and if this year's goes above that, it could mean a property tax hike.

The county is facing some rising costs:

•Health insurance costs for county employees may rise as much as 12 percent over this year's or more than $1 million, county Budget Director Tom Keeler said.

•Contractual raises for county employees are part of the 2007 budget. Those costs are rising roughly 3 percent, or more than $1 million, Keeler said.

•State mandated programs for the education of children with disabilities may go up as much as $800,000, Keeler said.

•Like homeowners across the nation, the county must prepare for the possibility that fuel costs will go up next year.

Next year, the county still will get income from the 1.5 percentage point sales tax instituted in 2005.

The tax was reduced 0.5 of a percentage point in September, and according to the county's current plan, the remaining 1 percentage point would remain in place for most of 2007.

7% hike in budget is sought; [Town of Poughkeepsie] tax levy would rise 4.6% (Michael Valkys/Poughkeepsie Journal)

Town of Poughkeepsie residents with homes assessed at $200,000 would see their town tax bills increase about $22 under a 2007 budget proposal released by Supervisor Patricia Myers.

Myers presented her proposed spending plan to the town board Wednesday night at town hall. The $27.8 million budget represents a spending increase of 7 percent over the $25.9 million plan approved in 2005 for the current year.

Myers, preparing her first budget since taking office in January, called the proposal "frugal" with little room for reductions.

. . . .

The budget would increase the tax levy, or the amount to be raised by taxes, to nearly $16.8 million, a 4.6 percent hike.

Myers said expenses outside the board's control are the main reason for the spending increase, with health insurance, retirement costs, employee contracts and debt service as key culprits.

"It's mostly fixed costs," Myers said. "We are being very frugal."

Land taxes down 14 percent; Franklin County able to ease burden of property tax (Denise A. Raymo/Plattsburgh Press-Republican)

The tentative 2007 Franklin County budget has topped the $100 million mark for the first time, but it appears to lower property taxes by more than 14 percent.

The overall budget proposal is $100,327,186, an increase of 6.82 percent from the 2006 budget.

However, the amount to be raised by taxes has been reduced by $2 million due, in part, to the 1-percent increase in sales tax the County Legislature initiated in June.

The total tax levy stands at $13,211,619, a decrease of 14.02 percent, according to figures released by County Manager and Budget Officer James Feeley.

And the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed-property value will plummet 29 percent, going from $6.13 to $4.35.

A homeowner with a property valued at $100,000 would pay $434.84 in 2007 compared to $612.96 in 2006.

Initial budget contains increase; Supervisor says the $12.23 million plan 'basically keeps town running.' (John Doherty/Syracuse Post-Standard)

[Onondaga County Townof] Clay Supervisor Mark Rupprecht Monday presented a $12.23 million town budget proposal that is about 10 percent higher than the current spending plan.

The proposal calls for no new spending or major projects for 2007, Rupprecht said.

Manlius takes first look at 2007 budget; Slight decrease in tax rate seen in tentative spending package unveiled last week (Jim Read/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Town of Manlius taxpayers will see small decreases in the tax rate if no changes are made to the tentative budget presented to the town board last week.

. . . .

The board will work on the budget for the next several weeks. The revised plan will be presented at a public hearing, which most likely will be scheduled for Oct. 25.

[Town Supervisor Hank] Chapman said he projects the overall full-town tax rate, including highway tax, to be $4.258 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, down from $4.327 in 2006. The part-town tax rate is projected at $3.168 per $1,000, down from 3.273 in 2006.

Overall spending in the full-town fund, the largest budget which covers most services, is up 2.32 percent to $6.8 million.

Budget keeps taxes in check; Supervisor says town will use nearly $1.37 million in town surplus mone (John Doherty/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Cicero councilors have proposed a 2007 town budget that calls for no tax levy increase.

The town board is considering a $9.57 million budget that is 9.4 percent larger than this year's budget, yet calls for raising the same amount of taxes that was collected in 2006.

"Our goal is to achieve a zero tax increase, if at all possible," said Supervisor Chester Dudzinski.

The 2007 proposal calls for using nearly $1.37 million in town surplus money to offset taxes. This year's budget used about $800,000 for that purpose.

Spa budget would raise taxes 6 percent (Glens Falls Post-Star)

Finance Commissioner Matthew McCabe on Tuesday proposed a $35.6 million [Saratoga Springs ]budget for 2007 that would increase property taxes for homeowners by 5.92 percent.

McCabe said taxpayers "will receive uncompromised services, increased city resources and a reasonable tax rate" of $5.01 per $1,000 assessed property valuation under the proposed budget.

Residents owning a $200,000 home would pay a $1,002 tax bill, about $56 higher than last year, under the budget proposal.

The $35.6 million spending plan represents a 10 percent spending increase from the $32.2 million 2006 budget.

$5 million from state for Oncenter hotel likely (Syracuse Post-Standard) Advocate for change to visit region; Author promotes civic participation (William Moyer/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

Richard C. Harwood will visit the Southern Tier this week to preach a message of civic change that is energized not by grandiose master plans, but by the homegrown initiatives of individuals and community groups.

"Outside people cannot solve your problems," said Harwood, founder and president of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, based in Bethesda, Md. "People who do the change are local people who understand the challenges."

Harwood will speak Wednesday at a two-day conference sponsored by Binghamton University's Center for Applied Community Research and Development. The conference will bring researchers from across the state to the Owego Treadway Inn & Conference Center to talk about research, methods and outcomes related to local topics, including health care and improving conditions for deaf people.

. . . .

"People want change, but we find it difficult. We don't trust our leaders," Harwood said. "We need people who will think about the public good, not individual good. We need to invest in change for the community ... We need to focus on what gives people hope."

Douglas Garnar, a professor in the History and Social Studies Department at Broome Community College, said Harwood's message is timely and relevant to the region.

"People are bailing out of civic engagement: They don't vote, they don't register to vote, they don't get involved in politics, they don't get involved in issues," said Garnar.

In sign of growth, GE to renovate building; Company spares structure set for demolition; deal is reached on taxes for Global Research Center (Kevin Harlin/Albany Times Union)

General Electric Co. will renovate a building it originally planned to demolish on its research-and-development campus, resulting in about $150,000 a year in extra tax payments to the town, county and school district.

The Schenectady County Industrial Development Agency reached agreement with the company Friday to increase the PILOT agreement--payment in lieu of taxes--by $4 million next year, and by another half-million in 2010, to cover the value of the building.

GE announced $100 million in renovations at the Global Research Center on River Road in Niskayuna in 2002. The project called for a slew of new buildings and the demolition of what was called "C wing." Instead, that five-story, 113,000-square-foot structure will be redone for office and lab space.

The company said it's growing faster than anticipated--particularly in the areas of biosciences and sustainable-energy initiatives--and needs the extra space. Employment at the 525-acre, research-and-development campus has grown by about 200 since 2002, to 1,900 people, said GE spokesman Jim Healy.

"The company's got a big focus on technology, and the stuff the researchers do here is integral to growing the company," he said.

Healy said GE is almost done with most of the other upgrades it announced in 2002, including a new conference center for executives and new labs. Renovations on the C wing will be completed by late next year, he said.

'Wake-up call' couldn't save MT Picture Display (Jeff Aaron column/Elmira Star-Gazette)

Several months before MT Picture Display in Horseheads shut its doors, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., visited the cathode ray tube maker with a plan to save the doomed plant, its 800 jobs and other manufacturers threatened by a flood of lower-priced Chinese imports.

Schumer told the employees he was sponsoring a bill that would slap a 27.5 percent tariff on all Chinese products imported into this country. The proposed tariff was in line with the difference at the time between the U.S. dollar and the Chinese yuan, which critics say is kept artificially low by the Chinese government to make their goods cheaper in world markets.

MT Picture Display was chosen for the visit because televisions imported from China were partly to blame for the company's demise. The factory, once Chemung County's largest employer, was a local example of a national problem.

Now, almost three years after announcing the job-saving legislation, Schumer and fellow sponsoring senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have quietly backed off and pulled the bill from consideration.

Both admitted the tariff idea wasn't a big hit when presented to the Senate Finance Committee, whose leadership preferred a gentler approach that would not make it appear the United States was abandoning free trade.

The tariff proposal, Schumer now says, was designed as a wake-up call. But I heard a different message in 2004, when Schumer passionately told MT employees it was time to put some muscle in the country's trade relationship with China.

There's much more. Investing in Niagara; New HSBC data center project is a good fit for county, region (editorial/Buffalo News)

The announcement that HSBC North America Holdings plans to invest $166 million--plus another $1.5 billion over the next 10 years--in a massive data center project here is a badly needed dose of good business news for this region.

Though not directly connected, this project fits nicely with the emerging work of other firms and the region's colleges in high-tech manufacturing and biomedical research.

HSBC plans to invest $139 million to build and equip a 275,000-square-foot data center in Niagara County, and $27 million to upgrade a smaller, 5-year-old facility in Amherst. The bank also will spend $100 million in each of the next 15 years to update the technology. In addition to 78 new HSBC jobs, the project also will attract spin-off jobs from vendors that will serve the data center.

. . . .

A public incentive also was important to this project. The center's computer network will use a lot of power, so the promise of low-cost energy was essential to getting a deal. That welcome commitment from the state Power Authority is a reasonable price to pay for a project that promises to pay dividends years down the road.

Game farm closing after 73 years (Associated Press) After 73 years, Catskill critters call it quits; Game farm where generations of children went to see and play with animals closes its gates today (Cathleen Crowley/Albany Times Union) Inmate population affects Senate district lines; Legislators benefit from counting of prisoners in census (Will Doolittle/Glens Falls Post-Star)

When New York was building prisons, job-starved North Country communities wanted them--and the fat payrolls that came with them.

And now that razor wire gleams in the woods throughout northern New York, and prison lights shine in the dark Adirondack sky, regional politicians want to make sure they hold onto the political clout that comes with housing tens of thousands of prisoners.

They want their inmates to count. And every 10 years when the nation takes its demographic temperature through the census, they do count.

They count as part of the local population when political districts are being determined.

And they count when federal money, based on population, is being handed out.

There's much more. Catskill Game Farm closes its gates for good; Animals will be auctioned off by Catskill zoo (Erikah Haavie/Poughkeepsie Journal) Ultralife lands $10.9M deal; Newark company will provide batteries, charger to defense firm (Mary Chao/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Ultralife Batteries Inc. has won its second largest military contract, valued at almost $11 million.

. . . .

This latest deal brings the amount of military contracts so far this year to $25 million, said Julius Cirin, vice president of corporate marketing at Ultralife. The company won $59 million in military contracts in 2005, Cirin said.

Military contracts have significantly increased Ultralife's business. Seven years ago, such deals accounted for about 15 percent of the company's $20 million in annual sales. Today, military work is 40 percent to 50 percent of the $100 million in annual sales, Kavazanjian said.

Ultralife employs 600 people in Newark, 100 in Texas, 60 in the United Kingdom and 300 in China. The new contract isn't expected to affect those staffing levels.

IBM cuts 400 jobs in systems, tech group; Endicott plant loses five workers (Gannett News Service)

IBM Corp. has told 400 technical staff that their jobs are gone.

There are five in Endicott, 71 at Poughkeepsie and 23 at East Fishkill, three of the nine U.S. sites affected by the move.

94 IBM jobs on cut list; Technical staffers look for new spot (Craig Wolf/Poughkeepsie Journal) Wyeth to apply to subdivide Chemical Development; rumors roll on buyer; Questions about splitting Wyeth create questions (Suzanne Moore/Plattsburgh Press-Republican)

Splitting off Wyeth Pharmaceutical's Chemical Development plant from the rest of its facility here has an already revved-up rumor mill in overdrive.

Could a buyer truly be imminent?

"We weren't officially told that," Rouses Point Mayor George Rivers said Monday. "It's nothing but hearsay."

But engineers from Wyeth met with the mayor and Village Building Code Officer Michael Tetreault Jr. late last week to discuss a subdivision application that will go to the Village Planning Board on Oct. 16.

A decision is expected at the Oct. 23 session.

A special report from the Buffalo News reviews failed promises made to revive Upstate's economy and new promises being made by Faso and Spitzer.

Now, it's Eliot Spitzer and John Faso's turn to promise to do what no man or woman has been able to do, despite all the detailed proposals: fix upstate's stagnant economy.

Like others before them, this year's candidates for governor have identified high taxes plus the high costs of electricity, workers' compensation insurance, health care costs and a cumbersome government construction process among the culprits preventing the Buffalo Niagara region from helping itself.

But skepticism runs deep: Many question whether Spitzer or Faso can get the job done, given the political realities and special interests that dominate Albany.

. . . .

Still, the two candidates have crafted detailed proposals to improve the business climate and attract jobs to the region.

And they talk about the upstate economy.

"I ask you to remember that tonight in Buffalo, there are men and women driving by the closed doors of the factory they gave their lives to, wondering what happens next, wondering when the next jobs will come to town," Spitzer said at his victorious primary night volunteer party in Harlem.

Faso turns to upstate's economy on the campaign trail.

"Upstate, population growth has been lower than every state except North Dakota and West Virginia," Faso said three weeks ago before the annual meeting of the Business Council of New York State, a pro-business lobbying group. "This kind of damage takes time, decades of overspending, overtaxing, overregulating."

Faso runs hard--away from Pataki (Yancey Roy/Gannett News Service)

The setting was an American Legion hall in a solidly Republican suburb. About 80 people, in groups of six or more, sat at tables listening to Republican John Faso make his case to lead New York, in the first of his series of "town hall" meetings around the state.

Local politicians and political contributors mixed with ordinary Joes, some anxious to leave before the kickoff of Monday Night Football. In the one-hour forum, two moments stood out--and neither focused on the would-be governor:

* Faso got his biggest ovation when he raked Comptroller Alan Hevesi over the coals and called on the Democrat to resign in the wake of a chauffeur scandal.

* In an overwhelmingly Republican audience, one woman asked Faso why she should believe his promise to lower taxes, reduce fraud and change the Capitol when a Republican administration has failed to do so for 12 years.

Those exchanges could be telling about the current political swirl. The Hevesi scandal, in which he admitted a state employee chauffeured his disabled wife at times (he later reimbursed the state about $83,000), could strike a nerve with voters because it implies special treatment. And Republicans might be hoping that it not only boosts Hevesi's opponent, J. Christopher Callaghan, but also Faso in a way.

. . . .

Kind of surprising, on the face of it, isn't it? A governor that spent 12 years in office isn't providing a boost to his party's choice for a successor.

But really, it's no revelation. Pataki's approval rating hit an all-time low in May--an all-time low for any governor in the history of the Marist College poll--with just 30 percent of New Yorkers saying he was doing a good job.

While Pataki has been setting up campaign offices in New Hampshire and Iowa to ready for a presidential run, Republicans in his home state have been distancing themselves from the governor throughout this campaign. It's not just Faso, but early contenders who dropped out.

Lopsided race for Governor; Even some GOP faithful are backing Spitzer over Faso. Many wonder if Spitzer can fix Albany. (Erik Kriss/Syracuse Post-Standard) Erik Kriss's long story on the race for Governor includes interesting information on who's speaking about the Spitzer campaign and giving to it--and who's not.

"[Spitzer] gets it," small business lobbyist and diehard conservative Mark Alesse said of Spitzer. "I think he's the kind of guy, if the business community marshals the facts and makes the case logically and rationally, he's going to be with us."

Alesse, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business state chapter, noted Spitzer's pledges to hold the line on taxes, to weaken a union-supported law requiring costly separate contracts on public works jobs, and to limit permanent partial disability awards to injured workers (all positions Faso has at least matched).

Deb Warner, director of government affairs for the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, said both candidates are talking about "our top issues." Although she said Faso has offered more detail, the chamber's PAC donated $2,000 to Spitzer and none to Faso.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199 represents hundreds of thousands of workers in hospitals, some of which Spitzer has promised to close. The union usually endorses Democrats but is sitting out the governor's race. 1199's politically savvy executive vice president, former state Assembly aide Jennifer Cunningham, would not say why.

Although Spitzer says he ultimately wants to cut taxes, some of his supporters say he will have to raise them to fulfill his promises of increasing education spending and other programs.

"We believe he's going to have to at some point," conceded Alan Lubin, executive vice president of the powerful New York State United Teachers union, which endorsed Spitzer. "Perhaps he can cut the taxes for working people and raise them on the wealthy."

Lubin added, "I just don't see him going after unions."

Alesse, the small business lobbyist, said he hopes Spitzer delays some of his initiatives rather than raise taxes. He said he thought Faso offers "terrifically good ideas," especially on tax relief and pension reform.

"You really hope that John is able to articulate those ideas clearly enough and well enough that he can persuade really the one voter that counts here--Eliot--because John's not going to win."

Serious talk on health reform; Both candidates have specific plans to fix costs of medical care (Jay Gallagher/Gannett News Service)

John Faso and Eliot Spitzer both say they will cut fraud in the Medicaid program, expand health-insurance coverage and reduce the cost of prescription drugs.

And because of a recent deal Gov. George Pataki made with the federal government, whichever one of them is elected governor next month has to deliver or risk the loss of $1.5 billion in federal assistance.

. . . .

Even beyond the Medicaid program, by far the nation's largest, health care in New York is arguably the most important issue the new governor will face next year.

Not only are rising health-care costs an important factor in driving up taxes, but they are also straining the budgets of companies, families and individuals.

Insurance premiums have been rising at far higher rates than income for decades, and businesses say the extra burden of paying for them is helping to depress the state's economy.

Taming Medicaid and slowing the rise of health-insurance premiums has been the goal of every governor, and every candidate for governor, going back decades. But the system has resisted major change up until now, in large part because the powerful players, including health-care providers, insurance companies and hospital-workers' unions, benefit from the status quo.

"New York is in this predicament because for too long we have not made honest and hard choices, and as a result we find ourselves with a system that is at once too costly and yet leaves too many without adequate access to the health care they need," Spitzer said in a speech earlier this year. "As remarkable as the care for individual patients can be, the system, as a delivery system, is broken."

Faso called the system "too expensive and too inefficient."

"Many hard-working residents cannot afford health insurance due to our costly system, and millions of people are not receiving the care that they need as a result," he said.

There's much more, including details on both candidates' policy ideas. Questions for the candidates (Albany Times Union)

Q:Will you suspend your pay if a state budget is late? Faso: "No. I am not an heir to family wealth and it is the Legislature's duty to enact a budget on time by acting on appropriations submitted by the governor."

Spitzer: "Yes. The governor and the Legislature should be held accountable for late budgets. Suspending pay shows that when the voters of this state are harmed by legislative inefficiency, so too will the state's leadership be called upon to sacrifice."

What the candidates say (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

The candidates for governor on health care:

ELIOT SPITZER, DEMOCRAT

"New York State's health-care system has become an affordability crisis for individuals, employers and taxpayers. Over the past 10 years, the total cost of our state's Medicaid program has nearly doubled, from $24 billion in 1996 to almost $50 billion now. "We first have to face the fact that our state's health-care system is broken. Comprehensive reform must include the commitment to cutting the total number of uninsured New Yorkers in half over the next four years and the ultimate goal of providing universal health care. We must guarantee health insurance for the 500,000 uninsured children and remove bureaucratic barriers to getting the nearly one million uninsured adults who are eligible for coverage enrolled in existing programs.

"To reduce health-care costs and increase the quality of care, we must honestly assess the capacity of New York 's hospital and nursing-home system: We must introduce technology to reduce costs while improving quality, dramatically improve the management of chronic diseases, and increase use of generic drugs.

"Medicaid, the largest and fastest growing part of the state budget, must be part of any comprehensive health-care reform. We must develop a better and less costly long-term-care system, which now accounts for over 40 percent of the Medicaid budget.

. . . .

JOHN FASO, REPUBLICAN

"My Medicaid-reform plan will save taxpayers $13 billion over four years while improving care. My plan conforms to three guiding principles: First, health-care policy must be driven by patient needs. Second, the Medicaid program needs to reduce waste and improve patient care. Third, health-care coverage should be affordable and available to the greatest extent possible.

"Specifically, my plan targets an estimated $4.5 billion in fraud and abuse with new technologies and an aggressive Medicaid inspector general. My plan also includes structural changes that ensure that Medicaid-provider reimbursements are competitively priced, will expand the preferred-drug list and use of generic drugs, and expand the use of community health centers.

"My plan also improves health-insurance affordability by limiting coverage mandates. This will help cut insurance costs, expand availability, and target insurance services to consumer needs. I would also reform the insurance law to permit health savings accounts that allow consumers to pay for medical costs using pre-tax allowances.

More politics: Spitzer way ahead of Faso in polls and funding (Buffalo News) Economy, taxes top issues in today's debate; Some area voters say war, terrorism less important in race for 29th (Salle E. Richards/Elmira Star-Gazette)

Southern Tier voters say the economy and taxes will be among the key issues they'll be focusing on in tonight's 29th Congressional District debate at the Clemens Center in Elmira.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr., R-Hammondsport, and Democratic challenger Eric Massa of Corning will face off at 8 p.m. The debate will be televised live on WETM2, Channel 11 on Time Warner Cable in Elmira and Corning.

. . . .

Some said terrorism, the war in Iraq and congressional misconduct are peripheral issues because voters don't think that either political party has solutions.

Pirro, Cuomo differ on approach to fighting Medicaid fraud (Mark Johnson/Associated Press) Cuomo, Pirro put spotlight on AG race (Erik Kriss/Syracuse Post-Standard) Secret funds, ulterior benefits; At least 13 Republican senators use GLOP money for college guidebooks that also serve as free publicity for the lawmakers (Jim Odato/Albany Times Union)

Taxpayers are footing the bill for election-year publicity for several Republican senators, who secretly steered state funds to a former top Senate aide to buy slick magazines featuring each lawmaker's picture, a Times Union investigation has found.

At least 13 GOP incumbents in the Senate are directing tens of thousands of dollars to the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities to print special publications with their faces and messages on the cover, including batches produced for some of them this election year.

The money comes from two shadowy funds embedded in the state budget that individual lawmakers can earmark for special projects. The accounts are "GLOP," which a Pataki administration official says stands for General Legislative Operations Programs, and member items, the Legislature's notorious pork barrel account.

The commission, called CICU, uses the money to make a guide to private colleges and distributes it in the sponsoring senator's district. Copies are sent to high schools, community colleges and libraries.

The CICU promotion is just one of numerous programs of the Senate GOP in which public money helps incumbents brand their names on buildings, newsletters and ball fields in their districts, critics of the practice say.

CICU, which represents 109 private New York colleges, is led by former Senate Finance Committee Secretary Abraham Lackman, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's top fiscal adviser for eight years and a 22-year veteran of the Senate finance unit.

There's much more. Paterson Says He's a Partner In Spitzer Run (Jacob Gershman/New York Sun) Economy still the heart of Reynolds-Davis rematch; Race shadowed by Foley scandal but both focus on jobs (Matthew Daneman/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) Voice of the Voter poll: Residents hail city, county efforts; But majority feels U.S., and even more the state, are on wrong track (Jim Memmott/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

As the November elections draw near, Monroe County voters are at once pessimistic and optimistic about the future.

According to a Voice of the Voter poll conducted last month, they are disenchanted with the direction of the country and even more disenchanted with the state's direction.

At the same time, a majority of those polled believes that the county and Rochester are on the right course.

There's more. Cuomo comments cautiously on Hevesi case (ErikKriss/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Workers' comp law is fairly balanced (letter/Albany Times Union) This letter in the Albany Times Union, which we're guessing (based on this) is a group that serves as a front for law firms that make their living on workers' compensation cases, works hard to rebut arguments about workers' compensation that no one in New York State is raising.

The New York Workers' Compensation Law, much like Social Security, is social legislation intended to provide a floor of benefits, so disabled workers do not lapse into poverty and become the next wave of welfare recipients. In return for workers giving up their right to sue employers, employers agreed to provide fair medical and wage replacement benefits, sometimes for life if the worker never fully recovers.

That was the bargain. If now business wants to scrap that deal, then I'm sure the trial lawyers would love a return to the old lawsuit days. Do we really want to go down that road?

. . . .

. . . . we need to disabuse the public of the perception, well fueled by the insurance and business lobbies, that workers' compensation costs New York residents jobs. Where's the independent study backing this myth up? It simply does not exist. But then again, injured workers are easy whipping boys for powerful corporate interests in Albany.

No advocate of cost-cutting reform is arguing for changes that would undo the original agreement behind workers' comp: guaranteed benefits for injured workers in return for reduced litigation. That initial compact remains intact in most other states, where the cost-cutting reforms being advocated in New York have already been widely implemented and costs have been reduced as a result. As for evidence that workers' compensation costs don't affect businesses ability to grow and prosper here, we refer our friends at the trial bar to this 2004 survey. We conducted it, so we suspect they won't find it independent enough, even though the results are quite stark. As an alternative, they might want to revisit more than two years of posts to this blog, where we have seen countless letters, stories, and anecdotes about the competitive challenges imposed by workers' compensation costs that are the nation's second highest

You Will Pay For Your Rebate (editorial/Jamestown Post-Journal)

. . . . Despite our tax burden being one of the highest in the nation, our state did not really have the money to give. In fact, the $700 million of tax rebate money was not a "rebate" at all. The state borrowed the money--adding to an already oversized deficit believed to be anywhere from $9 billion to $14 billion. And remember that years of deficits and borrowing have left a heavy burden on future generations since New York state's debt is expected to grow to $52 billion next year.

Something truly is wrong when New York state pretends to send us "rebate" money it does not have while digging a deeper hole of debt. How can we, as taxpayers, be willing to accept this?

As we have said numerous times, you cannot save money without truly cutting the size of government. Since 1980, our workforce of public employees has continued to increase, while jobs in the private sector have decreased. In the meantime, public pension costs continue to add to the state's financial woes. A report last week by the Public Policy Institute found state and local government employees pay a smaller share of pension costs, but collect higher benefits, than public employees in other states, according to an analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In short, the state faces plenty of problems, and Albany is serving up very few solutions.

As for the money the state borrowed to send us so-called rebate checks, we will also be paying that back--in next year's school and state taxes.

Raise all boats; New job strategies should include those too often left behind (editorial/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

The new economy, as it arrives, ought not exclude those populations excluded in the past.

That means bringing some of the new jobs and promise this region expects to create to communities, especially the city, where unemployment, particularly among young people, is much higher than statistics reflect.

That means, as the "Reworking Rochester" project indicated, committing time, resources and energy to strategic vocational education and job training.

It's vital that city youth are able to compete for jobs in optics and photonics, in biomedicine, in alternative energy and, yes, in modern manufacturing.

Don't blame free trade for New York's job problem, the writer of an oped in the Buffalo News argues.

My companies employ more than 500 Western New Yorkers who work hard every day to provide quality products and services to customers. My companies are growing in Western New York. We are competing with foreign companies and are winning. We are exporting to China, Vietnam, Russia, India, Mexico, Africa and South America.

We are not afraid of free trade. We are not afraid of foreign competition. We welcome competition because we make superior products and provide superior service to our customers.

We do not need politicians to insult our workers by saying we need to cancel all free trade agreements to grow and prosper in Western New York. That is insulting and naive. No country can protect itself to prosperity. Japan tried and look what happened.

We need our politicians to work together to reduce taxes, reduce energy costs, downsize government and confront the unrealistic benefit costs of the public sector that are bleeding us all dry. Public sector unions have to stop acting like the taxpayers owe them benefits we can't afford. Let's all face the reality that past promises were too generous and can't be supported.

Top of the list; Next N.Y. governor must make upstate economy special item on his agenda (editorial/Elmira Star-Gazette)

Message to New York's gubernatorial candidates from Twin Tiers residents: It's the economy, guys.

But that simple topic needs complex political answers, and whoever is elected as the state's next governor--Democrat Eliot Spitzer or Republican John Faso--should be judged in four years by how much he can do to turn around western and central New York's economies.

Voters in this region should not be persuaded by slick ads or party affiliations. They should reflect this area's ongoing concern with jobs and the economy by choosing a governor whom they believe will not just pay once-every-four-years lip service to the struggling upstate economy but will make it a key part of his agenda.

It's no secret that upstate New York and the Southern Tier in particular have experienced that euphoric economic spurt of the late 1990s only to be dumped by the recession that coincided with the crash of the telecommunications industry and Sept. 11.

There have been bright spots in small business startups and expansions and some major jobs imported to Chemung County when companies such as Vulcraft, Synthes and General Revenue Corp. opened operations here.

But as Gannett News Service reporter Yancey Roy points out, the Elmira area along with other upstate cities has experienced job losses while the rest of the state, particularly the Hudson Valley and New York metropolitan area, have seen gains. The economic imbalance obviously hasn't escaped the attention of Spitzer who likened parts of upstate to Appalachia. It was a stinging remark that fell somewhere between hyperbole and truth. Yet maybe Spitzer, if elected, will choose to use that ugly reference as a motivational tool for his administration to give upstate the state help necessary to make the job-growth climate more favorable.

Gubernatorial candidates offer ideas on reviving upstate (Gannett News Service)

Here are the views of candidates for governor on how to revive the upstate economy.

•Eliot Spitzer, Democrat:

The decline of manufacturing over the last few decades has left upstate hemorrhaging jobs, people and its tax base.

From 1990 to 2004, upstate lost 33 percent of its manufacturing base, more than any other state. Since 1990, upstate lost 25 percent of its young people ages 20 to 34. This cannot continue.

Revitalizing the upstate economy requires a coordinated and sustained effort.

Our government should have no higher priority than standing up for the state's economic future and making New York the best place to do business in America.

First, we must make business more competitive by improving New York state's business climate.

Second, we must foster innovation and cultivate the growth of strategic industries and expand the research capacity at our colleges and universities in areas with direct commercial applications.

There's more.

•John Faso, Republican:

Upstate needs significant tax cuts to improve the economy. It is time to put the family budget ahead of the state budget.

I have laid out specific plans to cap the school property tax, reform state mandates that drive up costs and consolidate non-educational functions.

My plan doubles STAR exemptions, but unless we cap school tax increases and reform mandates, taxpayers will not benefit from just more STAR.

I have also presented a plan to cut the income tax by 25 percent and eliminate the tax on capital gains and dividends.

This will lead to more investment in New York state than ever before, and it will make our state less reliant on economic development programs that favor a few but are paid for by all taxpayers.

Upstate employers need comprehensive reform of the workers compensation system, reform of contractor liability laws and insurance law reform to lower health insurance costs.

These actions will help keep jobs here.

There's more.

For the children (editorial/New York Post)

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's got his thinking cap on again, and that's potentially good news for more than a million city school kids.

And possible bad news for the special interests.

The idea kicking around in Klein's brain, and his staff's, this time: giving private groups a greater role in managing schools--and paying them with public dollars.

Such groups got grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help start 180 small schools throughout the city over the past three years, and they've done well. So Klein & Co. is thinking of using the groups more broadly to help manage public schools--with the funds coming directly from the school-system budget.

How extensive a role would these groups play?

That's unclear; indeed, the entire idea is in its very early stages. But there are grounds for optimism--if only because the concept is so novel and represents such an intriguing departure from the status quo.

At the same time, of course, any meaningful shift in school operations is apt to spark resistance in some quarters--notwithstanding decades of failure under the current system.

After all, what bureaucracy likes change (let alone bureaucrats so perversely dominated by unions)?

There's much more.

Group raps plan to close hospitals; Panel chief talks with heads of hospitals (Jim Mulder/Syracuse Post-Standard)

A hospital trade group is urging state lawmakers to reject the recommendations of a state hospital closing commission, even though the recommendations won't be issued for another two months.

The Iroquois Healthcare Alliance says the commission has not obtained enough public input. The commission is supposed to get feedback in Central New York from a 12-member regional advisory committee appointed by the governor and the state Legislature, but five of those appointments have not been made.

Gary Fitzgerald, president of the group representing 56 Upstate hospitals, said in addition to those concerns, he's worried legislators will not have enough time to act on the commission's recommendations after they come out Dec. 1. If Gov. Pataki approves the commission's findings, they will be adopted automatically unless the Senate and Assembly reject them by Dec. 31.

The story quotes the executive director of the commission dryly noting that the hospital group has launched its salvo without seeing the group's recommendations.

David Sandman, the commission's executive director, said his group has followed an open process with ample opportunity for public input. He said it's odd the hospital group is advocating a position on a report it has not seen yet.

"One would think they would be thoughtful and assess the outcome before determining a position," he said.

The commission was created by the governor and the Legislature to identify hospitals and nursing homes that have too many empty beds and are candidates for closure, consolidation or conversion. The state wants to shrink the system so it can reduce health-care costs.

. . . .

. . . looming changes in New York's political landscape have created doubt about whether the next administration will carry through on the commission's plans.

The commission's recommendations will come out shortly after Election Day, just before a new administration takes over in Albany. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic candidate for governor who has a runaway lead in the polls over Republican opponent John Faso, is not saying yet if he will abide by the commission's findings.

Spitzer has made it clear that, if elected, he will close hospitals. He will look at the commission's report for advice about downsizing the hospital system, but will not decide whether to follow all of the commission's recommendations until he sees them, according to Christine Anderson, a campaign aide.

There's much more. Hospitals face closing after election (Gary J. Fitzgerald op-ed/Syracuse Post-Standard) Help for hospital closings; Federal aid for system restructuring needs more commitment to fight fraud (editorial/Buffalo News)

The federal government is offering New York a $1.5 billion gift as the state seeks to shrink the size of its bloated health care system, but only if the state meets ambitious targets. It will be good to get the money and better still to hit the targets.

The deal was struck between outgoing Gov. George E. Pataki and the federal Department of Health and Human Services only weeks before a state commission charged with paring New York's bloated hospital system issues its report. The goal is crucial, especially in Western New York.

This region's shrinking population is making it more difficult for administrators to maintain the number of hospitals here. In addition, and at least as troubling, the oversupply of buildings and equipment makes it harder to deliver high-quality health care.

But closing hospitals is expensive business. Mortgages and contracts are in place, and buildings cannot simply be left to deteriorate. Equipment needs to be sold or moved and new uses found for the facilities. The deal for $1.5 billion of federal money, added to state money for the same purpose, means this difficult project is more likely to succeed.

Stuck in neutral: The WNY economy; Despite some progress, Buffalo region is falling further behind rest of country (David Robinson and Patrick Lakamp/Buffalo News) This story reviews some recent high-profile economic-development successes in the Buffalo region before mounting a convincing argument that, despite this news, the region's economy has been "stuck in neutral" for at least a decade.

Over the last 10 years, the Buffalo Niagara economy has been essentially stagnant, with little job growth, housing prices that are growing far slower than the rest of the country and incomes that aren't keeping pace, either, according to a Buffalo News analysis of economic data.

All this while the nation has been enjoying moderate growth.

And that means, in the race for economic prosperity, the Buffalo Niagara region is falling further and further behind.

"We're not attractive," said George Palumbo, a Canisius College economist. "Why aren't we attractive? Too few opportunities. Better opportunities other places attract people."

"What else do you miss? The creativity and the new ideas that those people have," Palumbo said. "You miss out on the next thing. That's stagnation."

The numbers are stinging.

The nation's population grew 13 percent in the past decade. Ours fled. It's down 3 percent.

Our annual wages are nearly $5,000 below the national average.

Our incomes barely kept up with inflation.

Our housing prices did not.

It's no wonder. Unemployment dropped nationally over the decade. It went up locally. The number of jobs nationally went up 13 percent. In Buffalo Niagara, they went up 1 percent.

. . . .

"People follow jobs," said Andrew J. Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.

"All of upstate has had a flat economy," he said. "That is 100 percent a product of the non-competitiveness of the business climate in upstate New York."

The story includes several compelling personal stories of people who live or lived in the region. It also includes important information on the region's loss of population among younger New Yorkers.

The flight from the Buffalo Niagara region has been especially strong among younger people. Over the last five years, the region has lost nearly 40,000 people between the ages of 20 and 44, a drop of almost 10 percent, according to new census data. That's almost four times faster than the nationwide decline for that age group.

Economists say the loss of the region's young people deprives the area of its most attractive workers, including many of its college graduates.

"It's the scariest number to see when you compare it with the national trends," said Gary Keith, an M&T Bank economist.

The story also includes interesting information on how the loss of jobs and people suppresses growth in wages.

With job growth lagging here, the competition for workers is much less intense than it is elsewhere, which is helping to keep a lid on wages. Beyond that, the changing mix of the local jobs base also is holding down wage growth, as high-paying factory jobs, like those in the struggling auto industry, disappear and are replaced by less-lucrative service positions.

As a result, our incomes aren't growing as rapidly as the typical American. Over the last decade, per capita personal income here grew 18 percent slower than it did across the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"We continue to fall behind the rest of the country," Palumbo said.

If income growth here had just kept pace with the rest of the country during that time, per capita income here would be $2,236 higher, putting a significant amount of extra money into the pockets of Western New Yorkers to spend at local stores and businesses.

That matters, Palumbo said, because most consumer goods are based on a national market. So if the price of a new car goes up by 6 percent and incomes are rising by just 3 percent locally, it becomes harder for people here to make that purchase than someone living in another place where incomes are growing more rapidly.

"We continue to fall behind the rest of the country," Palumbo said.

"Anything you buy in the national marketplace becomes harder to buy," he said.

It's a good, thorough story. And: A sidebar shows how these economic struggles have suppressed growth of housing values in the region. In Buffalo, a house is a home, not an investment (David Robinson/Buffalo News)

The old saying is that a house is the biggest single investment most people will make in their lives.

But not in the Buffalo Niagara region. Here, a house is a place to live.

While the United States has been in an unprecedented housing boom that saw median sale prices soar by 83 percent from 1995 to 2005, the typical homeowner in the Buffalo Niagara region, where housing values grew by 22 percent, has seen barely a quarter of that increase.

As an investment, housing in the Buffalo Niagara region has generally been a bust over the last decade. After factoring in the corrosive effects of inflation, the median sale price here actually dropped 5 percent in real dollars, while homeowners across the country enjoyed a 43 percent real increase in sale prices.

Those booming real estate values nationally have been a great source of wealth creation for many Americans, giving them a swelling base of home equity that they can use to pay for their children's college educations or fund their retirement.

"Down the road, that sluggish growth is going to hit us," said Gary Keith, an M&T Bank economist.

This gap between home prices here and the rest of the country is widening. In 1995, the median sale price of a home in Buffalo was 28 percent below the national average. Last year, it was 52 percent less, according to the National Association of Realtors.

There's more. On a related note: Home Properties moves out (Tim Knauss/Syracuse Post-Standard)

A real estate trust that got its start in Upstate New York is leaving this market, saying it prefers cities with more robust economies.

Home Properties Inc., of Rochester, announced last week that it is selling all 18 of its apartment communities in Upstate New York, including four complexes in the Syracuse area and one in Ithaca. The others are in Rochester and Buffalo.

The buyer and the purchase price will not be disclosed until the deal closes, most likely around the end of the year, said David Gardner, executive vice president. The buyer, a team of three regional real estate owners and developers, has paid a $6 million non-refundable deposit.

. . . .

Gardner said the Upstate properties, among the oldest the company owns, have already been through the cycle of being fixed up and having the rents raised, making it difficult to raise rents further. Other cities, with stronger economies, support rent increases more easily, he said.

"If we look at other regions we operate in--D.C., Baltimore, Long Island, Northern New Jersey--we just feel that with the same dollars over a long period of time we can get a better return in those markets than we can in Upstate," Gardner said. "The economic engine in these (Upstate) cities is not as robust as it is in some of the other locations we're in, so the demand for rental housing isn't as strong."

And: High taxes are killing businesses across state (letter/Buffalo News)

I once owned a small business and recently sold it, primarily due to the high taxes I paid. Most of the cash flow went to FICA, quarterly taxes, state taxes, federal taxes, terrorist tax and corporate tax. We won't mention the cost of liability, workers' compensation and disability insurance because it is too overwhelming. To put this in perspective: a weekly payroll gross is $1,600 for 11 employees, out of that amount $850 goes to taxes. Then the company pays tax on top of that, which allows the business to run in the red.

My point is that small businesses in New York State will continue to struggle as long as the taxes continue to increase. We live in a state where taxes are becoming out of control. My question is: How do we halt taxes from growing at such a rapid pace?

Metro N.Y. is hub for state power (Jay Gallagher column/Gannett News Service)

The state Senate Democrats' decision to make a Queens lawmaker their leader raises the possibility that all four statewide elected officials and the two legislative leaders will be from either Queens or Manhattan next year.

That doesn't mean that the Capitol might be moved to Manhattan or that the rest of the state is in danger of being pillaged for the benefit of the five boroughs. But it is an indication of how political power, following the people and the money, is shifting south and east in New York.

The 27 Senate Democrats, who hope to take control of the chamber away from the Republicans in next month's elections, chose Malcolm Smith, an African American who has served three terms, as their next leader. He will replace David Paterson of Manhattan, who is running for lieutenant governor. If the Democrats fail to pick up the four seats needed to take control, the most likely scenario, then Smith's selection isn't that significant, since minority parties in the Legislature have little power.

But if they do pull off the upset and are swept into power by the apparent Democratic tsunami that is building and likely to carry all the Democratic statewide candidates into office, it will be the first time in decades New York City politicians have held every significant post in state government.

. . . .

City residents are still less than half of the state (about 8.2 million of the total of about 19 million) and in fact with the city prospering and much of upstate floundering economically, the city--and to an even greater extent its flourishing suburbs--helps to subsidize the rest of the state.

But certainly some business leaders are uncomfortable about the diminishing influence of upstate. They launched last year an initiative called "Unshackle Upstate," which advocates different regulations and state policies to make it easier for the fading regional economy to bounce back. But the shrinking political clout of the region complicated their task.

New law is not the end of NYRI (editorial/Utica Observer-Dispatch)

"You will no longer have to worry about this power line tearing this community apart," Gov. George Pataki said Tuesday as he signed legislation preventing New York Regional Interconnect from using eminent domain to take property for its proposed high-voltage transmission line. Pataki went on to characterize NYRI's proposal as "wrong for New York."

Pataki is right that NYRI's plan to put a 1,200 megavolt transmission line through the heart of Mohawk Valley communities is "wrong for New York,"--particularly when the line's economic and power benefits will be reaped by people hundreds of miles away.

But the governor's claim that we have no more worries is unduly optimistic. Mohawk Valley residents should not confuse this battlefield victory with winning the war.

The NYRI proposal is not dead. In fact, this law will not even prevent NYRI from using eminent domain if the route ends up falling within a federally designated National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. In that case, federal law would trump the state's decisions. The federal government is still deciding whether and where to create such corridors.

And until the state creates an effective energy plan to guide our future, we cannot be assured that other companies won't come along with proposals that are just as threatening to our communities' quality of life.

That's why it's up to the new governor and Legislature to make addressing the state's energy future a top priority. We cannot afford to ignore the state's growing demand for energy or the need to upgrade our energy delivery system, both transmission and generation.

* A first step should be examining deregulation. Is the market effectively fulfilling the state's energy needs? NYRI's proposal is a free-market solution that Pataki and lawmakers have stymied with legislation. What does that say about the success of deregulation when it comes to building transmission lines?

And even in the current deregulated environment, the state can take steps to encourage new transmission lines be sited in a way that doesn't sacrifice upstate communities quality of life to downstate's power needs.

There's more.

Report finds N.Y. villages struggling; Spending, taxes rise in JC and elsewhere (Liz Hacken/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Spending in villages statewide outpaced revenues in 2004 as property taxes continued to rise, according to a new report by state Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi. Part of that spending increase in all villages, including Johnson City, is tied to salaries and employee benefits.

In 2004, more than 40 percent of Johnson City's total spending went to salaries and 19.2 percent to benefits, the report found. Statewide, villages paid 77.8 percent more for employee benefits in 2004 than in 1994.

"That's been the trend all along," Johnson City Mayor Harry G. Lewis said.

At least 60 percent of the village's budget for salaries goes to police officers and firefighters, Lewis said. And since their salaries and contribution to health insurance are negotiated through contracts, there's little the village can do to curb costs.

But village officials try to curb salary and benefit spending in other departments, he said, such as a move about 10 years ago to create another tier of employees in the public works department whose starting salaries were 25 percent lower than those of their co-workers who started years before them.

The village is starting to see the benefit from that, Lewis said, but most of that savings is being eaten up by growing health benefit costs.

For some perspective: Our Bob Ward takes a look at the latest report on New York's sky-high property taxes--and the related Census Bureau data on public-employee pension costs--in this commentary for public radio. Property owners getting relief; Rebate checks making way to taxpayers (Elizabeth Cooper/Utica Observer-Dispatch)

Local property owners started getting little cash windfalls in their mail last week and more will this week as state tax rebate checks are sent out.

Depending on where they live, taxpayers enrolled in the STAR program will be getting between $150 and $425 back from the government.

Oneida and Herkimer county residents will get a combined total of more than $16.5 million. Of that, around $13.2 million will go to 56,457 Oneida county residents, with the remainder distributed among 16,801 homes in Herkimer County.

There's more, including a quote from a state legislator who says some of her constituents say they plan to use their rebates to help pay other taxes. Griffo's fix for budget temporary (editorial/Utica Observer-Dispatch)

Oneida County Executive Joe Griffo's proposed budget for 2007 might look good to property owners in the short run because it comes with no tax increase.

But it violates a basic business principle by relying on one-time resources to pay bills that recur every year.

Griffo unveiled a budget last week that holds the line on property taxes by using $7 million from an advance on tobacco settlement money and $26.5 million in sales-tax revenue expected next year.

Both are temporary fixes. The tobacco money is half of the county's $14 million anticipated from the years 2025 to 2045, leaving $7 million to patch future budgets. As for the $26.5 million, it'll be gone when the Medicaid sales-tax increase sunsets in 2007.

When asked how the county will make up that difference, Griffo said it will be up to future leaders to decide the best way to fund county government. That might include a county executive other than Griffo, who hopes to be in the state Senate next year.

Griffo used almost the exact same words two years ago when he pitched his plan to increase the county sales tax 1.5 percentage points to help pay escalating Medicaid costs. . . .

. . . .

Nobody wants higher property taxes. But we need to pay for government. Griffo has done some things to keep growth at bay, such as reducing the county work force and some internal consolidations. But those efforts have not resulted in the kind of savings that can offset the big-ticket expenses like pensions, health care, fuel costs, contractual salaries and state mandates. Nothing short of radical reform will change that.

In the meantime, handing off funding problems to future governments isn't the way to go. This budget is shortsighted. Griffo may have his eye on higher office, but he needs to make sure that if he gets it, the county isn't left in a bad position.

In other words, today's leaders must find the best way to provide for the people they represent, but they need to do that with an eye on tomorrow.

Stillwater plans tax rate reduction; Action made possible by increased property value after reappraisals (Leigh Hornbeck/Albany Times Union)

The tax rate will drop by more than a dollar next year due to a townwide revaluation.

The tentative budget released by the Town Board calls for a tax rate of $1.92 per $1,000 assessed value in 2007, which includes funding for the Stillwater Free Library. This year's rate was $3.05, also including $127,360 for the library.

New appraisals of properties throughout the town raised their total value from $360,736,967 to $691,639,937. The last appraisal was done in 1995. Generally, the higher assessed values are, the lower the tax rate. The bill for a house assessed at $200,000 would be $384 in 2007, down from $610 this year.

The cost of running the town will increase next year from $5 million to $5.5 million. This year, the town collected $533,393 in taxes to run the town and $408,190 to pay for the highway department, which is funded by taxpayers who live outside the village of Stillwater. The rest is paid by anticipated revenue and money unspent in 2006.

Next year, the amount to be raised by taxes for the general budget is $621,013, about $87,000 more than this year. The amount for the highway department is about $107,000 more, up to $515,825.

No tax hike in Guilderland budget; Town's general fund tax rate to remain at 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value (Wendi Lynn Steffke/Albany Times Union)

The best part of Guilderland's tentative 2007 budget is that it carries no property tax increase, according to Town Supervisor Ken Runion.

"We are constantly looking for ways to make sure the burden for a lot of the services doesn't necessarily fall on the taxpayers," Runion said.

As proposed, the tax rate for the general fund would remain at 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. That means a resident with property assessed at $185,000 would pay $46.25 toward the town's general fund next year.

In addition to that, property owners in the town of Guilderland and the village of Altamont would pay 9.5 cents per $1,000 assessed value for new voting machines and procedures mandated by federal law; 10 cents per $1,000 value for highway funding on property in Guilderland; and various taxes for light, fire, ambulance, sewer and water districts.

Chili officials propose slight tax increase (Ernst Lamothe Jr./Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

For the second straight year, town officials have proposed less than a 2 percent tax increase. And residents can expect more town services in the upcoming year.

The 2007 proposed budget calls for an increase in the tax rate from $3.83 to $3.85 per $1,000 of assessed value, or about 1 percent The owner of a $120,000 home would pay $462 in town taxes, up about $3 from the current bill. The total budget would be about $10.2 million, an increase of $343,226.

Unlike some towns, Chili continues to grow. The population is 28,513, up 875 residents from 2000, according to census data.

Chili Supervisor Tracy Logel said joining the Monroe County Municipal Workers Compensation Pool, which helped lower premiums over the past year, saved the town more than $100,000 a year.

"Plus we haven't had a tremendous amount of business loss," said Logel. "We actually added to our services because we have a growing number of seniors and people wanting to use our recreation programs."

Covert budget proposal has no tax increase (Ithaca Journal)

Covert residents [in Seneca County] would see no town tax increase under a budget proposal by Town Supervisor Michael Reynolds.

Reynolds' proposed spending plan for the general account calls for $248,154 in total spending, down from last year's $251,774, and would freeze property taxes in the town at $1.51 per $1,000 of assessed value.

. . . .

If his plan is adopted as proposed, this would be the first time in more than 10 years that there was no tax increase in Covert. Reynolds made spending cuts a centerpiece of his campaign.

Reynolds said Town Clerk Judy Boyes and Highway Superintendent Jeff MacCheyne were very helpful in preparing his "zero increase" proposal. Both recognized the need to make do in tough fiscal times, Reynolds explained, and worked with him to see that spending was held down.

New York Towns Have Until Nov. 10 To Finish 2007 Budgets (Patrick L. Fanelli/Jamestown Post-Journal)

State law requires towns across the state to adopt their 2007 budgets by Nov. 10.

Residents, though, must be given an opportunity to examine the budget beforehand and make any recommendations they see fit.

According to state law, the budget process begins Sept. 20--the deadline for department heads such as highway superintendents to submit a list of requested expenditures. From these requests, the budget officer--either the town supervisor or his or her designee--must put together a tentative budget for the following year and submit it to the town clerk by Sept. 30.

The tentative budget must be presented to the town board by Oct. 5, at which point town board members can make any changes they feel are necessary. It's then up to the town board to approve the tentative budget.

Brighton eyes 4.5% tax hike; Proposed 2007 budget gives more to parks, keeps leaf pickup (Marketta Gregory/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Residents could see their property tax rates increase 4.52 percent under the proposed town budget for 2007.

In return, the budget provides a little more money for the park system and the library, along with keeping popular programs such as leaf pickup.

"The taxes always go up," said Colin Herlehy, who has lived in Brighton for close to 13 years. Still, for him, the taxes are worth it for his 7-year-old daughter, Alyson, to get to play on the swings and the jungle gyms at the parks and for all the other things he enjoys about living in Brighton.

If the budget is approved, Herlehy and other homeowners can expect to pay $25.51 more per $100,000 of assessed value than they did in 2006. That would bring the total town taxes to $590.24 per $100,000 of assessed value in 2007.

The proposed budget of $19.5 million is a $1.09 million increase over 2006's budget of $18.4 million. And of that $19.5 million total budget, close to $12.3 million would come from property taxes.

High property taxes are killing New York (letter/Schenectady Gazette)

Baby boomer retirees are selling their homes, pulling their money out of the banks, and leaving New York state in droves because of the high property taxes. They are taking their money with them.

The South understands that the retirees are valuable and have lots of money to spend in their communities.

Who will pay the skyrocketing New York property taxes when we lose our homeowners and tax base?

New York, get a clue.

Proposed budget means there will be no general town tax for Malta residents (Glens Falls Post-Star)

Town residents [in Malta, Saratoga County,] will not pay a general town tax for the 23rd consecutive year under a proposed $6.58 million budget for 2007, Supervisor Paul Sausville said.

Property tax bills will include a tax of 68.5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to cover volunteer ambulance and fire protection services. Under that formula, a homeowner with a property assessed at $200,000 would pay a tax bill of $137.

Taxes on the rise (Steven M. Sweeney/Jamestown Post-Journal)

City property taxes could increase 8.5 percent under the budget proposed Friday by Mayor Sam Teresi.

Teresi's budget includes about $13.3 million in property taxes, up more than $1 million, or 8.5 percent, from the $12.2 million budget adopted for 2006.

For city property owners, it means a 67 cent tax-rate increase per $1,000 in assessed property value to roughly $21.

Health benefits, fuel prices challenge our towns (Bennett Loudon/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Town officials are blaming increased budgets and taxes in 2007 on higher health insurance costs and energy-related expenses.

In most Monroe County towns, where proposed spending and tax increases are under 10 percent, town officials are attempting to offset the increases by asking town employees to contribute more toward the cost of their insurance and to accept less generous coverage.

And highway departments, the largest users of oil-based products in most towns, are planning to cut back on capital projects, such as road paving.

. . . .

Despite the increased contributions by local town workers, public employees in New York state have traditionally contributed far less toward some benefits than most of their counterparts in other states.

According to a study released last week by the Business Council of New York State, New York's public workers pay an average of 4 percent of the cost of their pension, compared with the national average of 9 percent.

The study also found that workers for state and local governments and school districts were paid an average pension of $23,891 last year, which is about 16 percent above the national average.

Matthew Maguire, director of communications for the Business Council, said municipalities find it difficult to contain employee benefit expenses in negotiations because state laws keep in place all provisions of contracts after they expire, while a new agreement is worked out.

. . . .

.

But Flo Tripi, western region president of the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents employees in at least nine Monroe County municipalities, called Maguire's statement "totally ludicrous."

Without laws that continued the provisions of expired contracts, the union employees would lose all of their benefits, she said.

That last allegation, about unions losing all their benefits if the notoriously union-friendly Triborough Amendment to the state Taylor Law went away is, well, totally ludicrious. Union members would not lose all their benefits. They would just have to negotiate in good faith, and it would become much more likely that union benefits would be more like typical private-sector benefits and not, as they generally are now, much, much plusher. Tax rate dips in 'no frills' Greece plan (Meaghan M. McDermott/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

[Greece] town residents would see their tax rate drop by 1.8 percent under Supervisor John Auberger's tentative 2007 budget.

The $47.6 million spending plan is up about 4.3 percent over this year's $45.6 million budget.

"It's a no-frills budget, we're trying to do more with less," said Auberger. "The budget is very straightforward and we always try to do the best we can to provide our current level of services at the lowest possible cost."

Under the proposed plan, the tax rate would fall to $6.24 per $1,000 of assessed value next year, down 12 cents from this year's $6.36 per $1,000. That rate does not include special district taxes, such as drainage, lighting and sanitary sewers. Including special districts, total taxes for the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would be $712.80 in 2007, down $12.59 from 2006.

County may collect all taxes; Consolidation of service for all municipalities is being tested in Lysander (Tom Leo/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Lysander is working on a pilot program with Onondaga County that could lead to a centralized system for collecting taxes.

County Executive Nicholas Pirro first suggested the possibility of phased consolidation for tax collection overseen by the county during his State of the County address in March. He talked about it again last month during his 2007 budget message.

"With most people paying their bills online or through the mail, I don't believe in the future we're going to need 19 towns, the county and the city all collecting taxes," Pirro said Wednesday. "In the end, if we can eliminate the expense of municipalities funding 20 different positions around the county, I think it'll benefit everybody."

The pilot with Lysander is the first step, Pirro said. Currently, tax collection is handled at the municipal level.

Counties cash in on DMV money; locally run offices claim 12.7 percent from state for each transaction handled (Alaina Potrikus/Syracuse Post-Standard)

County clerks across the region are urging residents to frequent their local Department of Motor Vehicles to help lower their property taxes.

Counties receive a 12.7 percent share from the state from each transaction processed at local offices, from renewing vehicle and license registrations to applying for license plates. It added up to $1 million in Oswego County last year and nearly $500,000 in Madison County.

But keeping the dollars local has been an uphill battle for county officials, who are battling mail-in renewals and the Internet that send the money directly to the state, bypassing local offices.

New York's pain at the pump (editorial/New York Post) An editorial in the New York Post explores the role of taxes and other government policies in driving up gasoline costs in New York State.

Actually, conspiracies have nothing to do with it. Here's what does:

Taxes: Behind only California and Connecticut, New York is a national leader in taxing gas--62.3 cents/gallon, according to the American Petroleum Institute. New Jersey's levy is 32.9 cents/gallon; Vermont's, 38.4. Alongside the standard excise tax, New York also imposes a "petroleum business tax," a "spill tax" and state and local sales taxes.

Refineries: The further the distance between retail pumps and a refinery, the more expensive becomes gas delivery--and therefore gas itself. New York has no refineries; Pennsylvania has three. This explains why gas prices vary by as much as 30 cents between these states even though New York's tax is only 10 cents higher.

Ethanol: Regulations mandating that ethanol make up 10 percent of gasoline are costly. Ethanol is expensive to produce, ship and blend with gasoline. Ethanol is more expensive than gasoline, and New York is far from ethanol producers.

On gas prices, conspiracy theorists can take off their tinfoil hats. Big Oil hasn't nefariously targeted New York to victimize with higher gas prices.

If anyone has, it's your elected representatives.

Why are the gas prices lower in nearby states? (letter/Syracuse Post-Standard) Gas prices stay high in Tompkins; Local economy, taxes play role in county residents paying more than folks in surrounding areas (Tim Ashmore/Ithaca Journal)

Filling your gas tank in Tompkins County comes with an extra price--about 10 cents more per gallon than the statewide average price of $2.58 cents a gallon.

Call it the Tompkins tax. It's fueling some burning anger among motorists.

As gas prices drop throughout the country, area residents are beginning to notice that gas prices in Tompkins and nearby counties remain high.

Donna Davis, now living in Ovid, just recently moved to New York and feels the shock of New York state fuel prices.

"I knew that gas prices would be high in New York, but I'm still surprised that they're this high," Davis said.

Gas tax back for a county debate (John Mariani/Syracuse Post-Standard )

Onondaga County's cap on gasoline sales taxes is on the agenda once more as the county Legislature meets at 2:30 p.m. today at the county courthouse to vote on a $1.11 billion amended 2007 budget.

Changes approved Sept. 30 by the Ways and Means Committee, affecting 108 items of expense or revenue, trimmed about $5.6 million from the tentative budget presented last month by County Executive Nicholas Pirro.

These amendments would lower the average countywide property tax rate from the $8.17 per $1,000 of assessed valuation that Pirro proposed to $8.05 per $1,000. As it was, Pirro's original budget cut the countywide rate from $8.52 this year.

The changes don't include Minority Leader Edward Ryan's proposal to kill the county's cap on gas sales taxes on March 1. The Republican-dominated Ways and Means Committee forwarded it without a recommendation to the full Legislature.

The county Division of Management and Budget estimates the 8-cents-a-gallon cap could cost the county up to $5.2 million in lost sales tax revenue if it remains in place past its scheduled May 31 expiration date through the end of 2007. Ryan, D-Syracuse, questions whether consumers are seeing those savings and argues that a property tax cut would be fairer.

Tier leads upstate area as gasoline costs fall; Average price here at $2.53 per gallon (John Hill/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Southern Tier drivers have a little extra spending money these days, as the cost of gasoline is lower in the Binghamton area than in almost any other upstate New York City.

The average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the Binghamton metro area was $2.532 Sunday, according to the American Automobile Association. Only Syracuse had a slightly lower average at 2.530 a gallon.

Lower gas prices mean drivers have more money to spend on other things. Subimal Chatterjee, a marketing professor at Binghamton University, said variations in gas prices typically affect spending on entertainment or other non-necessities. People who follow a household budget will adjust their expenses to allow for changes in the price of gas. During periods of higher prices, people may sacrifice an extra trip to a restaurant or a Sunday drive in the country, he said.

. . . .

While the cost of gas in the Binghamton area is lower than most upstate cities, drivers are paying more than their downstate and out-of-state counterparts. Drivers filling up on Long Island paid $2.37 per gallon of regular gas Sunday, on average. The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline was $2.26--11 percent lower than Binghamton's average.

Taxes in N.Y. prevent family from moving back from Mass. (op-ed/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Our current house [in the Boston area] is 2,600 square feet and could be sold for around $525,000. After some investigation, we concluded that a new house of a similar size in the Rochester area (depending on the suburb) would run between $300,000 and $350,000. This price was so reasonable that we both became very excited about the prospect of moving back. That is until we looked at the differences in taxes.

To be honest, the difference in property taxes alone is astounding. In Attleboro, we pay a single city property tax of $10.14 per thousand dollars of assessed property value. Believe it or not, when we moved to Attleboro in 1995, the tax rate was $18 per thousand. It has been cut almost 50 percent even with the construction of three new schools.

Due to the rapid increase in housing prices, our home potentially would sell for $525,000, although it is assessed by the city at $440,000. This results in a property tax bill of just over $4,400 per year. We estimated that a similar home in Canandaigua assessed at $325,000 would result in an annual combined property tax bill (city, town, school and county) of $9,100. That is a difference of $4,700 a year. If we moved to Webster, for example, the tax burden would be even greater.

When you look at income taxes and sales taxes, the trend continues. In Massachusetts, we pay 5.3 percent in income taxes with a personal exemption for being married of $7,100.

In New York, the income tax for a couple making more than $40,000 is close to 7 percent. The sales tax in Monroe county is 8.25 percent, while in Massachusetts, it is 5 percent with no tax on clothing. In addition, the price of gas is much steeper in New York than it is in Massachusetts. According to gasbuddy.com, the lowest price in Monroe county on Sept. 29 was $2.56 per gallon, while in Attleboro, Mass., it was $2.27. Most of that difference is again taxes.

While we are certainly not looking for anyone to feel sorry for us , it makes us sad that at the end of the day, a move back to New York would not only come with no economic benefits but with a great deal of economic risk.

It leaves me wondering how the politicians in New York can look their constituents in the eye as they drive more people and businesses out of western New York with outlandishly high taxes. Massachusetts was once known as "Taxachusetts." Now the state has fixed the problems and has a decent economy to show for it.

Downtown should play a role in UB's plan for 2020 (Buffalo News op-ed by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt (D-Erie County)

In an essay in the Buffalo News, Assemblyman Hoyt praises the president of the University of Buffalo and his plan for growing the university, and offers some ideas of his own.

. . . . At the heart of this vision is the recognition that the welfare of the university and its host community are interdependent, along with an understanding of the monumental role that universities can play in economic development, urban education and the stabilizing of neighborhoods.

In advance of the development of the details of the master plan, I wanted to offer a few ideas of what I think should be included.

The university should be applauded for growing its physical presence in the city through the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, but it should go a step further by relocating the School of Architecture and Planning downtown. There is no better classroom for this department than the "urban laboratory" of downtown Buffalo and its wealth of internationally significant architecture. When Syracuse University's new chancellor announced that the school of architecture would move downtown, she was greeted with enthusiasm and excitement and described as "visionary."

Additionally, we should move the School of Law downtown, where law students' educational experience would be greatly enhanced by the proximity to our court system, major law firms and the downtown business core.

Housing students downtown should be another component of this long-term plan. Currently UB's on-campus housing is bursting at the seams, and more than 97 students are housed in hotels, along with another 83 from Buffalo State College. Rather than spend taxpayer dollars on a hotel, why not build a joint UB/Buffalo State apartment-style dormitory downtown with all the usual dormitory amenities, giving students the opportunity to live downtown while contributing to downtown's residential revitalization?

Finally, to fully capitalize on these investments and the university's anticipated growth, we should connect the Amherst Campus to downtown via an extension of the Metro Rail, as was originally planned, an initiative that would generate an enormous return on investment, not just for the university but the community at large.

For you hard-core political junkies:

We heard this week from Tom Keefe, a friend, a long-time left-of-center activist in Albany, a city court judge in Albany, and a serious political thinker with whom we've enjoyed spirited political discussions in the past. He e-mailed us about a gathering this weekend that may interest real political junkies in the Capital Region.

The American Political Items Collectors will gather this Saturday October 14, 2006, starting at 9 am until 3 pm, at The Albany Best Western Sovereign Hotel 1228 Western Ave across from The University at Albany. Hundreds of collectors from all over the country will be selling trading and purchasing political campaign and political cause material from the early days of the republic through the present campaign. Free appraisal services are available.

Anyone interested in politics or American history should find this interesting.

We should add that a quarter-century ago, we found ourselves in Tom's home evaluating a truly astounding collection of old political campaign buttons and the like. If there will be more like that at this event, it should indeed be interesting.

STAR rebates are on the way (Omar Aqije/Glens Falls Post-Star)

Local property owners can expect to receive their rebate checks from the School Tax Relief program later this month.

In September, the state began mailing STAR rebate checks to counties in alphabetical order. Saratoga County residents who are eligible for the rebate will receive it on or before Oct. 18, while Oct. 25 is the expected date for Warren and Washington counties.

Earlier this year, the Legislature approved nearly $700 million for property tax refunds. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance will issue the rebates.

. . . .

The state established the rebates to provide homeowners some relief from high property taxes. The move, however, has drawn some criticism.

Matthew Guilbault, executive director of the New York State Taxpayers Union, said the state is applying a "bandage to a hemorrhaging wound."

Guilbault said the rebates are funded from nearly $5 billion in state surplus funds--money collected through taxes that is only partially being returned to property owners.

"They do not address the fundamental causes that lead to increases in property taxes," Guilbault said. "The Legislature is desperately looking for a way to tell voters they did something about it. They are paying it out of the surplus, which is too much tax money they collected."

The union, a grassroots organization that advocates for tax reform, is encouraging people to send their rebate checks to the Taxpayers Union, which will use the funds to hire a lobbyist. The lobbyist's job would be to represent taxpayers in Albany, Guilbault said.

Utica's suit against NYRI heading to court today (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Bechtel to cut Schenectady jobs; Defense contractor plans to shift most of the work to Pittsburgh, leaving behind a satellite unit (Eric Anderson/Albany Times Union)

A defense contractor will move 260 or more jobs out of downtown Schenectady over the next two years as it consolidates operations in Pittsburgh.

A spokesman for privately held Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc. said the "vast majority" of the company's 330 largely white-collar employees would get offers to relocate to Pittsburgh or remain with a smaller satellite operation in Schenectady.

Both units engineer and procure parts for nuclear propulsion systems aboard Navy ships.

Bechtel said the number of employees that will be remaining in Schenectady hasn't been determined, but Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton said the satellite office would employ 65 to 70 people.

The bulk of the jobs will shift to Bechtel's Pittsburgh office within the next year, said Jim Dillon, the local operation's manager of procurement operations and public information officer.

The Pittsburgh office, with 550 employees, was larger, Dillon said, and jobs had been moving there over the years from Schenectady, which has seen employment drop to 330 from 450 in 1986.

RF logs $178M in military work; Army backpack radios make up bulk of order (David Tyler/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Harris Corp.'s RF Communications Division has begun shipping radios to meet contracts and orders worth $178 million, with one of the orders labeled "urgent" for Harris radios to be used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The biggest chunk of the work involves $130 million in orders from the U.S. Army for Harris' high frequency radio system known as Falcon II AN/PRC-150(C). The orders are part of a larger contract announced earlier this year.

Larkin deserves return to Albany (editorial/Poughkeepsie Journal)

In endorsing a Republican state Senator for re-election, the Poughkeepsie Journal considers the arguments for replacing the property tax with an income tax as a means of funding schools.

[State Sen. William] Larkin, a Republican from New Windsor, said reforming the school property tax system is among the top priorities the state needs to address.

Larkin rightly points out that calls for higher income taxes to provide property tax relief are akin to taking the money out of one pocket instead of the other.

Larkin supports a review of the 4.2 million parcels of exempt properties, valued at more than $580 billion, in the state to ensure they are being used for legitimate tax-exempt purposes. Those that aren't could be returned to the tax rolls, easing the burden on other property taxpayers, he said. That general idea has been proposed by others in recent years, but has yet to gain widespread support. While such a move would have benefits, it would have to be done carefully so legitimate nonprofits, religious groups and private schools aren't harmed.

Larkin's opponent, Democrat Chris McBride of Monroe, is also calling for property tax reform. But he offered few specifics on how accomplish it, other than to possibly increase income or sales taxes.

. . . .

He also supports an incremental approach to addressing shortfalls in funding for New York City, and other small cities' schools that doesn't take funding away from other suburban and rural school districts.

And: The Poughkeepsie Journal also runs a letter on the subject.

In this election year, one of the big topics for statewide office-seekers is property tax reform. Of course what this means is not so much reform as shifting some of the funding for schools from property tax to the state income tax. This is a terrible idea.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe there should be no property tax for anything. I think it is wrong for the government to charge rent for property you already own. This being said, the property tax has one very valuable effect. It causes people to notice the outrageous growth in school budgets. This is what our politicians are trying to hide.

The debate should really be, "How are you going to control school spending?" I have not heard one politician speak out on this issue. That's because all of these politicians are owned by New York State United Teachers and the School Administrators Association of New York State. These two groups lobby for expensive school legislation and then tell you it's the state Legislature that causes the costs to go up.

Advocates take school funding arguments to NY's highest court (Mark Johnson/Associated Press)

Advocates who won a judgment for billions of dollars in additional state funds for New York City's public schools asked the state's highest court on Tuesday to make the state pay at least the minimum amount recommended by a lower court.

That would still be $4.7 billion more a year, but far less than the group--known as the Campaign for Fiscal Equity--has sought for years. CFE had demanded $9.5 billion a year more in aid phased in over four years.

The midlevel Appellate Division said earlier this year that the governor and the Legislature should spend $4.7 billion to $5.63 billion more on the annual operating budget of the city's public schools. But Gov. George Pataki appealed that ruling.

On Tuesday, the CFE--which launched the lawsuit in 1993--asked the Court of Appeals to intervene because the Legislature and governor have failed to allocate the $4.7 billion. That's the top end of what Pataki's education reform commission recommended in 2004.

Pataki has previously argued the judiciary does not have that authority to order the executive and the Legislature to set a certain amount, but CFE lawyers argue that court action is needed because lawmakers have failed to address the problem on their own.

The judges on Tuesday focused on funding as they questioned lawyers on both sides of the case rather than on the constitutional issue of separation of powers.

There's more.

N.Y. School Suit May Produce Billions Less (Sarah Garland/New York Sun)

A coalition suing the state to force it to spend more money on New York City public schools may get billions of dollars less than they hoped for when the state's highest court makes a decision in the 13-year-old case this winter.

At a hearing yesterday at the state Court of Appeals, judges pressed lawyers for the coalition, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, to explain the rationale behind the $4.7 billion to $5.6 billion increase in annual state operating aid they have argued is necessary for New York City to provide a sound basic public school education. In the past the governor and the legislature have proposed $1.93 billion as an annual minimum increase. Judges grilled campaign lawyers to explain why that amount wouldn't be enough to satisfy the demands of the lawsuit.

Lawyers defended the $4.7 billion minimum, however, saying it was based on several studies--one commissioned by a lower court--that gave more weight to the poverty rates and cost of living in New York City.

. . . .

It was the third time the case has appeared in front of the Court of Appeals. In 2003, the court upheld a verdict that the state was depriving the New York City public schools of the amount of funding needed to provide the adequate education guaranteed in the state constitution. But the court did not order the state to pay a certain amount, saying that would the breach the separation of powers. Instead, the judges left the exact amount up to the legislature and governor to decide.

They haven't yet. The court's deadline was July 2004.In arguments yesterday, lawyers for the plaintiffs asked the court to issue a directive that would force the legislature to allocate a minimum amount.

School dollars back on court docket; Billions at stake as aid advocates, state lawyers try to resolve 13-year-old Campaign for Fiscal Equity suit (Rick Karlin/Albany Times Union)

School funding advocates and lawyers for the state were back at the Court of Appeals Tuesday, hoping once and for all to resolve the 13-year-old Campaign for Fiscal Equity school funding case.

"This is the third time we've been here," said Joseph Wayland, a lawyer for CFE, the organization that first filed suit in 1993 to get more state aid for the New York City school system.

The Court of Appeals in 2003 ruled on CFE's behalf, agreeing the approximately 1.1 million-student New York City system had been shortchanged over the years and should get more funding.

Since then, however, Gov. George Pataki and the state Legislature missed a court-ordered deadline to solve the funding problem and litigants have been back to both local and state courts several times in what could best be described as a classic legal saga of briefs, arguments, court rulings and appeals.

The latest chapter dates to March when the midlevel Appellate Division court said the state needs to provide between $4.7 billion and $5.6 billion more to New York City schools over four years.

That money was not in the state's final budget, prompting CFE lawyers to seek an unambiguous order from the Appeals Court.

School aid range debated; State seeks to lower minimum funds (Yancey Roy and Gary McLendon/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Court Hears CFE Case (Karen DeWitt/New York Public Radio)

School Financing Case Argued Before State's Highest Court (David M. Herszenhorn/New York Times)

State Money To Cover Taxpayers' Share Of Project (Nicholas Dean/Jamestown Post-Journal)

With $3.9 million in EXCEL money from the state, the Jamestown Public Schools are paying the taxpayer's share of the district's Phase 3 capital project.

Approved last October, the project was to be nearly covered by state aid--with 2 percent of the total cost to be paid by the district's taxpayers. Now able to cover the two percent, Superintendent Ray Fashano said on Tuesday "taxpayers won't have to pay a dime," as the district can pay the $1.18 million local share with EXCEL (Expanding our Children's Education and Learning) money.

"EXCEL is the state Legislature's answer to half of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit," Fashano said Tuesday during a meeting of the Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education. "In April, when they passed the state budget, they passed $2.8 billion in EXCEL money with most of it going to New York City. ... Jamestown's share of that is $3.9 million."

Larkin deserves return to Albany (editorial/Poughkeepsie Journal)

In endorsing a Republican state Senator for re-election, the Poughkeepsie Journal considers the arguments for replacing the property tax with an income tax as a means of funding schools.

[State Sen. William] Larkin, a Republican from New Windsor, said reforming the school property tax system is among the top priorities the state needs to address.

Larkin rightly points out that calls for higher income taxes to provide property tax relief are akin to taking the money out of one pocket instead of the other.

Larkin supports a review of the 4.2 million parcels of exempt properties, valued at more than $580 billion, in the state to ensure they are being used for legitimate tax-exempt purposes. Those that aren't could be returned to the tax rolls, easing the burden on other property taxpayers, he said. That general idea has been proposed by others in recent years, but has yet to gain widespread support. While such a move would have benefits, it would have to be done carefully so legitimate nonprofits, religious groups and private schools aren't harmed.

Larkin's opponent, Democrat Chris McBride of Monroe, is also calling for property tax reform. But he offered few specifics on how accomplish it, other than to possibly increase income or sales taxes.

. . . .

He also supports an incremental approach to addressing shortfalls in funding for New York City, and other small cities' schools that doesn't take funding away from other suburban and rural school districts.

And: The Poughkeepsie Journal also runs a letter on the subject.

In this election year, one of the big topics for statewide office-seekers is property tax reform. Of course what this means is not so much reform as shifting some of the funding for schools from property tax to the state income tax. This is a terrible idea.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe there should be no property tax for anything. I think it is wrong for the government to charge rent for property you already own. This being said, the property tax has one very valuable effect. It causes people to notice the outrageous growth in school budgets. This is what our politicians are trying to hide.

The debate should really be, "How are you going to control school spending?" I have not heard one politician speak out on this issue. That's because all of these politicians are owned by New York State United Teachers and the School Administrators Association of New York State. These two groups lobby for expensive school legislation and then tell you it's the state Legislature that causes the costs to go up.

Advocates take school funding arguments to NY's highest court (Mark Johnson/Associated Press)

Advocates who won a judgment for billions of dollars in additional state funds for New York City's public schools asked the state's highest court on Tuesday to make the state pay at least the minimum amount recommended by a lower court.

That would still be $4.7 billion more a year, but far less than the group--known as the Campaign for Fiscal Equity--has sought for years. CFE had demanded $9.5 billion a year more in aid phased in over four years.

The midlevel Appellate Division said earlier this year that the governor and the Legislature should spend $4.7 billion to $5.63 billion more on the annual operating budget of the city's public schools. But Gov. George Pataki appealed that ruling.

On Tuesday, the CFE--which launched the lawsuit in 1993--asked the Court of Appeals to intervene because the Legislature and governor have failed to allocate the $4.7 billion. That's the top end of what Pataki's education reform commission recommended in 2004.

Pataki has previously argued the judiciary does not have that authority to order the executive and the Legislature to set a certain amount, but CFE lawyers argue that court action is needed because lawmakers have failed to address the problem on their own.

The judges on Tuesday focused on funding as they questioned lawyers on both sides of the case rather than on the constitutional issue of separation of powers.

There's more.

N.Y. School Suit May Produce Billions Less (Sarah Garland/New York Sun)

A coalition suing the state to force it to spend more money on New York City public schools may get billions of dollars less than they hoped for when the state's highest court makes a decision in the 13-year-old case this winter.

At a hearing yesterday at the state Court of Appeals, judges pressed lawyers for the coalition, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, to explain the rationale behind the $4.7 billion to $5.6 billion increase in annual state operating aid they have argued is necessary for New York City to provide a sound basic public school education. In the past the governor and the legislature have proposed $1.93 billion as an annual minimum increase. Judges grilled campaign lawyers to explain why that amount wouldn't be enough to satisfy the demands of the lawsuit.

Lawyers defended the $4.7 billion minimum, however, saying it was based on several studies--one commissioned by a lower court--that gave more weight to the poverty rates and cost of living in New York City.

. . . .

It was the third time the case has appeared in front of the Court of Appeals. In 2003, the court upheld a verdict that the state was depriving the New York City public schools of the amount of funding needed to provide the adequate education guaranteed in the state constitution. But the court did not order the state to pay a certain amount, saying that would the breach the separation of powers. Instead, the judges left the exact amount up to the legislature and governor to decide.

They haven't yet. The court's deadline was July 2004.In arguments yesterday, lawyers for the plaintiffs asked the court to issue a directive that would force the legislature to allocate a minimum amount.

School dollars back on court docket; Billions at stake as aid advocates, state lawyers try to resolve 13-year-old Campaign for Fiscal Equity suit (Rick Karlin/Albany Times Union)

School funding advocates and lawyers for the state were back at the Court of Appeals Tuesday, hoping once and for all to resolve the 13-year-old Campaign for Fiscal Equity school funding case.

"This is the third time we've been here," said Joseph Wayland, a lawyer for CFE, the organization that first filed suit in 1993 to get more state aid for the New York City school system.

The Court of Appeals in 2003 ruled on CFE's behalf, agreeing the approximately 1.1 million-student New York City system had been shortchanged over the years and should get more funding.

Since then, however, Gov. George Pataki and the state Legislature missed a court-ordered deadline to solve the funding problem and litigants have been back to both local and state courts several times in what could best be described as a classic legal saga of briefs, arguments, court rulings and appeals.

The latest chapter dates to March when the midlevel Appellate Division court said the state needs to provide between $4.7 billion and $5.6 billion more to New York City schools over four years.

That money was not in the state's final budget, prompting CFE lawyers to seek an unambiguous order from the Appeals Court.

School aid range debated; State seeks to lower minimum funds (Yancey Roy and Gary McLendon/Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Court Hears CFE Case (Karen DeWitt/New York Public Radio)

School Financing Case Argued Before State's Highest Court (David M. Herszenhorn/New York Times)

State Money To Cover Taxpayers' Share Of Project (Nicholas Dean/Jamestown Post-Journal)

With $3.9 million in EXCEL money from the state, the Jamestown Public Schools are paying the taxpayer's share of the district's Phase 3 capital project.

Approved last October, the project was to be nearly covered by state aid--with 2 percent of the total cost to be paid by the district's taxpayers. Now able to cover the two percent, Superintendent Ray Fashano said on Tuesday "taxpayers won't have to pay a dime," as the district can pay the $1.18 million local share with EXCEL (Expanding our Children's Education and Learning) money.

"EXCEL is the state Legislature's answer to half of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit," Fashano said Tuesday during a meeting of the Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education. "In April, when they passed the state budget, they passed $2.8 billion in EXCEL money with most of it going to New York City. ... Jamestown's share of that is $3.9 million."

Needed: More Of the Same; Shared tax collection is a move in the right direction (editorial/Syracuse Post-Standard)

Did you know that you, as a taxpayer in Onondaga County, are helping to pay for 20 positions, some of them fulltime, as well as 19 town offices, a city office and county office--all to collect taxes from the same people?

Could this costly patchwork be streamlined, without losses to local governments but with considerable savings in personnel, mailing, processing and other costs?

County government wants to find out. And taxpayers deserve an answer.

County Executive Nick Pirro, who with other local leaders has been speaking for this change for some time, and who pressed the case twice this year alone, has found an opening: The town of Lysander has been without a tax receiver since a retirement in January.

The county is preparing to help Lysander collect its taxes next January. If the move proves cost-effective--and Lysander already is saving a tax collector's salary--the county could phase in a more comprehensive plan over the next half-dozen years. That way, current tax collectors could find new jobs.

. . . .

Not surprisingly, that common-sense approach to consolidation--without sacrificing local political identity or lowering the level of service to constituents--turns out to be popular with political stakeholders. For example, a majority of local leaders OCL interviewed favored a merger of tax-collection functions.

They were even more supportive of other types of mergers. Nearly 70 percent favored combining highway departments; 62 percent were for a single economic development office; the same percentage supported a merged purchasing operation, while 60 percent favored combining police and sheriff's functions. Nearly half were open to consolidating fire departments and tax assessment offices.

Countywide tax collection may be an idea whose time has come. Here's hoping its success will stimulate more common-sense consolidation.

[Ithaca] City budget: Taking small steps forward (editorial/Ithaca Journal)

About three weeks ago, shortly after Tompkins County Administrator Stephen Wicher delivered a 2007 budget with a sub-inflation property tax levy increase, we used this space to urge county lawmakers to carefully weigh calls for added spending against the dangerously escalating burden local taxpayers bear. At the Legislature's next meeting, veteran Legislator Martha Robertson chided The Journal, accusing us of writing the same editorial every year.

That may be, Ms. Robertson, but it's a message worth repeating.

So it is that we applaud some early good signs and offer the same caution now that Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson has put forward her proposed spending plan for 2007. Unlike Wicher--who submitted a 2007 spending plan that kept the tax levy increase to 2.6 percent under orders from the Legislature, then urged those lawmakers to fatten the $69.9 million "local share" spending pot--Peterson attempted to anticipate needed increases and build those into her $51.83 million budget proposal for the coming year. While her plan carries a property tax levy increase of 6.1 percent, more than twice the county's jump and faster than the 3.8 percent rate of inflation, early reports from City Hall indicate that much of the increase will be funneled into the city's Public Works Department. Under the plan, Public Works will get an additional $300,000 to fund the equivalent of five full-time and one part-time post. The increase will also allow the city to take over sidewalk maintenance in Ithaca, a sore spot for anyone who makes a habit of walking in this enlightened green city. Peterson said her plan also aims to pull small projects out of the debt-increasing capital fund and into the pay-as-you-go operating budget. Both moves should, Peterson told The Journal, increase efficiency and help keep down future costs to taxpayers.

. . . .

The challenge now is for Common Council members and city officials to find ways to trim non-critical spending and reduce the levy increase as much as possible, and to make sure today's investments in Public Works and less debt in fact translate into lower taxes in the future, and not just new spending. We hope the city budget process is off to a good start, and we encourage all local officials--whether they welcome the message or not--to remember that government money is taken from the pockets of the people who work for what they earn, and that seizure should never be a penny greater than the essential commitments of government require it to be.

[Albany] County budget promises tax cut; Breslin plan lowers the bill for a $150,000 home about $20, calls for end to cap on gas sales tax (Carol DeMare/Albany Times Union)

County Executive Mike Breslin unveiled a $565.7 million proposed budget for 2007 Tuesday that reduces county property taxes by 2.3 percent, keeps the work force stable and recommends eliminating the cap on the gas sales tax to bring in an additional $1.5 million without dipping into the county's $27.75 million surplus fund.

"It's a totally balanced budget," Breslin said.

If the spending plan is approved by the County Legislature, which will now conduct a series of budget meetings, the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 would realize a tax decrease of $20.11 on next year's bill, Breslin said.

This year's budget held the line on property taxes, a marked departure from the 2005 spending package, which increased taxes by 28.6 percent.

Urgently seeking to transform health care; UB medical center, closure of 3 major hospitals would be keys to mega-plan for Buffalo Niagara (Henry Davis/Buffalo News)

A mega-plan to restructure the region's health care would establish a university medical center linked to Kaleida Health on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and close at least three major hospitals, according to people familiar with the proposal.

The proposal stems from the creation last year of a state commission to reform New York's increasingly costly health care system and close unneeded hospitals.

A regional advisory committee has been working privately for months on recommendations that the commission is expected to consider in the coming weeks. The group used the opportunity to reshape the area's hospital industry almost as if taking out a clean sheet of paper and starting from scratch.

The proposal could change or never get off the ground. It is a nonbinding set of suggestions to the commission, which meets Thursday, and some hospital officials expect that targeted facilities, labor unions and medical staffs will seek changes.

. . . .

The aggressive proposal is bound to stir controversy but contains a sense of urgency.

"There was a feeling that the hospitals have bottomed out, that something has to be done. They have been unable to reinvest, to keep up, to retain doctors," said a source familiar with the deliberations who spoke on condition his name not be used.

Western New York is considered a poster child for the problem that the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century was put together to solve.

Underused, aging facilities duplicate services in a medical arms race that drives health costs higher without delivering better results, experts say.

Patients used only 55 percent of the area's licensed hospital beds in 2004--this includes beds in use and mothballed beds.

Meanwhile, the population is declining, hospital stays are shortening, and more procedures are moving to physician offices and surgery centers.

"We've needed to close unneeded hospitals for years. It is affecting the quality of care," said Bruce A. Boissonnault, president of the Niagara Health Quality Coalition.

It's a statewide problem.

New York spends more on health care than any other state, reflected in its high Medicaid costs, yet much of the hospital industry remains mired in financial trouble.

There's much more.

Whenthe chips are down (New York Sun op-ed by Kent Gardner of the Center for Governmental Research)

Enticing a chip fab has long been a goal of the Pataki administration. The Luther Forest Technology Park in Saratoga County received substantial state and federal money to support site assembly, permitting, and infrastructure. The Luther Forest brochure promises "up to 10,000 good paying jobs for our young people" for the estimated 2 million square feet of manufacturing space. So far, so good.

But site assembly, pre-permitting, and infrastructure weren't enough to persuade Advanced Micro Devices to award the prize to New York.To close the deal, New York promised AMD a cool billion dollars now, with more to come in future savings. In exchange, it looks like, AMD will bless Saratoga County with its presence.

Is the "juice worth the squeeze?" Particularly the squeeze on taxpayers? Or did the thrill of the moment overrule common sense?

These are good jobs, 1,200 of them according to the governor's press release over the summer. But what happened to the 10,000 jobs that were going to be created at Luther Forest? At this rate, this massive and expensive site--planned to hold 2 million square feet--will house only 2,000 workers at build-out. 60% of the site, or 1.2 million square feet, will have been paved over by a single plant.

AMD's workers are likely to earn just over $100 million per year (based on averages reported by the Minnesota IMPLAN economic analysis group for the semiconductor industry). And as AMD buys goods and services and its employees spend their hard-earned pay, more jobs will result. Doing a rough calculation, this will probably total another 900-1,000 jobs earning an additional $40+ million (the "spillover" jobs are largely from consumer spending and don't pay as well as the AMD jobs). Theodore Geisel, chairman of Albany's Center for Economic Growth, is quoted by the Business Review (Albany) as saying that "economists estimate that there will be a 3-1 ratio for the stimulation of additional jobs in the region." Given the current configuration of industry in New York State, that's wildly optimistic. Maybe firms will grow up around the AMD fab and bring supplier jobs to New York. And maybe not.

I can't refute the claim that the construction phase will boost the regional economy for a few years. A chip fab is an expensive and complex facility. We're told to expect a project costing in the neighborhood of $3.2 billion. But much of this cost is for highly specialized equipment--$2.6 billion, according to the press release. Most of this specialized equipment will be sourced outside the state. So we have $600 million in industrial construction. Let's assume 10% of the equipment is purchased in New York for another $260 million in equipment manufacturing. If correct, then total wages for the construction period (including direct and spillover earnings, both wages and proprietor's earnings) might total $800 million. But this depends a lot on whether the construction crews are local or not. The more specialized the project, the more likely it is that national firms will be engaged and their crews recruited from other locales.

If we count all the money paid to all the people who are likely to benefit from the chip fab, then the billion dollar investment makes sense. We break even very soon--maybe in year three.

But that's pretty screwy math. All of New York's taxpayers throw money into the pot, but only the lucky few who work either at the plant or for supplier firms--plus AMD's shareholders--benefit? This is a transfer payment, not a cool-headed business investment.

There is a benefit for New Yorkers. While I wonder if AMD itself will ever pay much tax, its employees will. Figuring roughly, I'm guessing that we can expect maybe $7 million per year in personal income tax, post construction. Sales tax might come in at another $4 million annually, split between the state and localities. And there are other taxes, of course (this IS New York, after all). If we think of the taxpayer as the "owner" of the business (the State of New York), we're spending a billion dollars or more in the early years and getting a 25-year stream of tax revenue worth a lump sum of perhaps $225 million today (including construction period taxes).

. . . .

The AMD deal does not fit into a sustainable or scalable economic development policy. Let's focus on improving the business climate for all companies, not "buying" jobs from AMD or any other firm. If this deal made economic sense, we could save the trouble of all these negotiations with private industry and just put everyone on the public payroll.

There's more, and it's interesting reading.

Drop by drop; Gasoline prices fall faster elsewhere (editorial/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

. . . there's a great disparity between what Southern Tier drivers are paying and what's available just across the border. Readers cited prices at least 30 cents cheaper in Pennsylvania, $2.19/gallon in Massachusetts and even in New York City, $2.22/gallon. Tuesday morning on a Web site that cites the cheapest gas prices in Iowa, the lowest price per gallon for regular unleaded gas was $1.90. On www.gasbuddy.com, you can see a list of 10 states whose average gas price per gallon is $2.10 or below.

When New Yorkers raise the issue of being "ripped off at the pump," they are told that prices are higher because of increased transportation costs, taxes, etc. Stop feeding us that nonsense. Take a look at the USA National Gas Temperature Map (http://www.iowastategasprices.com/price_by_county.aspx) that is color coded to show where prices are the highest (warmer colors). New York is the lone state entirely draped in warm colors east of the Rockies. The other 36 states in that group have average gas prices of $2.38 per gallon or below (many under $2.26).

State and local taxes do make gasoline more expensive hereabouts--but even those cannot account for the full discrepancy. The fact that our average price per gallon is $2.53 is nothing to cheer about. There's still plenty of room to go downward to catch up with more fortunate neighbors.

N.Y. teachers, N.H. state workers to get money in ING settlement (Mike Gormley/Associated Press)

As many as 66,000 unionized teachers in New York and about 5,000 state workers in New Hampshire will get an average of $450 apiece from a settlement with an investment company that paid a fee to unions to steer business to them, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday.

Spitzer said the $30 million settlement ends his investigation of ING, a Dutch-based investment company that had paid as much as $3 million annually in fees to the New York State United Teachers union. Every teacher will receive at least $100. The agreement doesn't cover New York City teachers who are represented by the United Federation of Teachers.

About 5,000 New Hampshire workers who participate in the state government's version of a 401(k) plan, which is administered by ING, will share another $2.75 million in a deal reached Tuesday morning with state Securities Director Mark Connolly. ING has 60 days to come up with a plan for paying restitution and it may or may not take the form of checks, Connolly said.

. . . .

In June, NYSUT paid $100,000 and adopted reforms to settle charges by Spitzer's office that it steered members to enroll in retirement plans that critics said charge high fees that erode returns. Union leaders weren't targeted because the money from ING was spent on financial seminars and they didn't personally benefit from the arrangement, Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp said.

Several teachers unions nationwide had deals with investment companies that some members believe offered them poor investment products. The unions didn't inform their members about the fees paid by the investment firms. Spitzer said he wants the NYSUT agreement to set a new standard for transparency in the marketing of retirement plans such as a public worker version of the federal 401 (k) plan, which allows employees and employers to contribute toward investment capital.

Spitzer's soft spots (editorial/New York Post)

Attorney General (and Gov.-Presumptive) Eliot Spitzer offered a useful lesson yesterday: If you're a target of one of his probes, it's good to be politically influential.

That's the bottom-line message of a settlement Spitzer announced with investment firm ING--which the AG said had bribed a union trust $3 million a year to steer teachers to its products. And it also looks a lot like the lesson of another deal he struck last week with officials at a Bronx not-for-profit accused of stealing $1.2 million from the charity.

Under the terms of the ING settlement, the firm will pay $30 million--including an average $450 in restitution to each of more than 50,000 New York teachers outside the city.

The union's penalty? $100,000.

Which is barely a slap on the wrist, given that the union--New York State United Teachers--actually has deep pockets: A labor watchdog, the Center for Union Facts, reports that NYSUT is sitting on $105 million in assets.

But ING has a much higher financial profile; it's easier for Spitzer to portray the firm as part of big, bad Big Business.

NYSUT, meanwhile, claims to represent more than a half-million current and retired school and health-care workers. Though Spitzer seems to have a lock on the governorship, clearly he's taking no chances and is cutting the union considerable slack.

. . . .

. . . New Yorkers are left to wonder: Why did Spitzer force ING to cough up $30 million for paying bribes, but the union only $100,000 for taking them? (The union also gets to keep the millions it took.)

Spitzer Would Raise Taxes, Giuliani Warns Faso Backers (Jacob Gershman/New York Sun)

Headlining a fund-raiser for the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Mayor Giuliani told donors last night that John Faso would lower taxes, and warned that his Democratic opponent would do the opposite.

In a short speech at the gilded Versailles Room in the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan, Mr. Giuliani, who is mulling a presidential run, said Mr. Faso, who is expected to lose to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in a landslide, would be a "business friendly" governor who can be trusted to lower taxes.

He told donors to "forget about the polls and put your money behind your beliefs."

. . . .

"It's hard to promise all those tremendous spending increases and not turn around as many Democrats do right after they are elected. They say they are not going to raise taxes, and then they say, 'Oh, my God. I just have to,'" Mr. Giuliani said.

Mr. Spitzer has said he won't raise taxes as governor, while promising to reduce property taxes and cut the number of uninsured New Yorkers by more than a million people.

Spitzer smacked by Giuliani's tax attack (Maggie Haberman/New York Post)

Rudy Giuliani jabbed at gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer last night, suggesting the Democrat will hike taxes to handle the state's budget crunch, as he helped raise cash for GOP nominee John Faso.

"This is what Democrats miss, this is what his opponent misses," Giuliani said at a fund-raiser for Faso at The St. Regis hotel. "This is the damage they'll do if they raise taxes--and they always do."

A Spitzer spokeswoman said he "respects" Giuliani and his record, but added that Spitzer has "pledged not to raise taxes and rejects this knee-jerk partisan claim."

More politics:

Questions for Spitzer (editorial/New York Sun)

. . . . Here are some questions that Mr. Faso and the members of the press corps participating in the debate could put to Mr. Spitzer in the interest of giving voters some information that goes beyond Mr. Spitzer's gauzy campaign commercials.

. . . .

General, you have promised to spend an additional $4 billion and $6 billion a year on New York City public schools. That will prompt requests for billions in additional state aid for other poor school districts. From where, specifically, will this money come, given that you have promised not to raise taxes? Please do not cite any reports by Alan Hevesi, but give your own specifics.

Sir, you have said you want to raise the cap limiting the number of charter schools in the state. Will you promise right now that, in the process of lifting the cap, you won't cave to the teachers' union, which wants to force unions into charter schools by eliminating secret ballot elections in union organizing campaigns?

Clinton, Spitzer talk taxes with LI voters (Beth Fouhy/Associated Press)

Spitzer reiterated his plan to offer middle class New Yorkers $6 billion over three years, saying it was the key to keeping people from moving out of the state.

"We want you to stay here. The only way we're going to persuade you to do that is to bring the tax burden back in balance," Spitzer said.

His Republican opponent, John Faso, released a statement Tuesday warning that Spitzer's tax plan would offer only short-term relief because it did not cap certain local taxes. Over time, Faso said, homeowners would likely end up paying higher property taxes.

"For Mr. Spitzer to appear in Long Island, where his property tax scheme will do the most damage to homeowners, and call for property tax relief is blatant deception on his part," said Faso, who later attended a fundraiser hosted by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Clinton and Spitzer have promises to keep (Larry Levy column/Newsday)

The first daffodil had just winked through the snow in her Levittown garden when Carolyn Schiller invited one of the nation's most famous politicians to hear, first hand, about the crushing burden of property taxes. To her shock, Mario Cuomo showed up--and soon enough so that some of the short bloomers still remained to be obliterated by the reporters who followed him to the nation's first suburb.

It was 1989. The talk around Schiller's table was frank and focused mostly on the need to reform school aid formulas to help communities with little commercial property to tax. The neighbors came away impressed with more than just the chocolate cookies. "He's a very wonderful man," said Schiller, whose property taxes ate an astonishing $5,700 of her family's $35,000 income. "I'm very hopeful."

Nothing changed. If anything, the costs of living the suburban dream rose higher as a raging recession soon forced Cuomo to cut aid--cuts that hit Long Island homeowners harder than any New Yorkers.

And that's about when Schiller decided to leave Long Island. It wasn't just high taxes that drove her away, she told me back then, but low expectations: She had lost faith in her leaders.

Yesterday, 17 years later, two other politicians came to a middle-class home to talk about high taxes and other dysfunctions of suburban life. Like Cuomo, they drew a crowd, created a stir and raised expectations.

. . . .

This may be great stuff for campaign commercials. But Clinton, Spitzer and every other candidate promising change--especially when voters seem uncommonly fed up--are raising the bar of expectations very high. Like Cuomo did for Carolyn Schiller, they are giving folks hope something really will change.

The consequences of not delivering will be devastating. I don't mean only for the economy or Spitzer's and Clinton's careers. As Schiller reminds us, there is the question of faith in our leaders and the price of collectively losing it.

Let's have debates; The public would benefit from discussions of issues in the state comptroller's race (editorial/Albany Times Union)

D'Amato: GOP won't take any statewide races in New York this year (Marc Humbert/Associated Press)

Read Spitzer's lips (editorial/Wall Street Journal/subscription required)

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal (for paid subscribers only) takes note of New York's ongoing economic problems stemming from its high tax burden and the pledge of both candidates for Governor not to raise taxes.

No one is giving Republican John Faso much chance to beat Eliot Spitzer in their race to be the next New York Governor. But the Republican's campaign has already done a public service in prompting the Democratic attorney general to make a no-new-taxes pledge.

Mr. Faso, a former leader of Republicans in the state assembly, is campaigning for a significant supply-side tax cut for the state that is one of the two or three most heavily taxed in the U.S. Mr. Spitzer won't go that far, but during his debate recently with Mr. Faso he pledged, "There will be no tax increase in a Spitzer administration."

Plenty of politicians have made the same pledge to win elections, only to renege later. . . .

It's nonetheless significant that Mr. Spitzer is sounding a more moderate economic bent now that he may soon be responsible for the Empire State's economy as Governor. It's easy to play the scourge of business as AG when a Republican is in the state house. But as Governor, he will inherit the same miserable regulatory and tax climate that has made upstate New York a dead zone for new business and so difficult for young people to stay in the state.

Owego firm aims to build Humvee successor (Jeff Platsky/Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin)

Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in this Southern Tier village has assembled a team to bid on the replacement for the military's Humvee.

The company will join with Armor Holdings Inc. to compete on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program. Lockheed will serve as the prime contractor and systems integrator, providing vehicle design, computer capabilities and logistics. Armor will be responsible for vehicle assembly and lead the design and manufacture of armor systems for the vehicle.

Both the Army and Marines are looking to replace the well-known Humvee with a more rugged vehicle that can withstand the shock from explosive devices while performing multiple functions for the two services.

The military expects to begin soliciting bids by next spring. No price tag has been placed on the project by the Pentagon.

Help us track area gas prices (editorial/Ithaca Journal)

Readers of Monday's Journal might recall the Page 1A story on gas prices in Tompkins County--specifically, how our booming local economy and low unemployment rate allegedly cause gas prices in our little corner of the world to be approximately 10 cents higher than the state's $2.58-per-gallon average. Those same readers might also recall our "call to action," of sorts--asking readers to send us updates of regional gas prices, to be published both in the printed version of The Journal and our online edition.

So far, so good. Alert readers have informed us--and therefore thousands of others--that if you're willing to trek to Newark Valley in Tioga County, you can pay as little as $2.41 for a gallon of regular unleaded, considerably less than the Tompkins average. Of course, for most of our county and points north, that's a bit unreasonable, but you get the point: A little bit of interactive journalism can translate into useful, real-world knowledge.

Of course, we're not the only place gas consumers can turn to for information on the best prices around. There's a great Web site, the name of which says it all: newyorkstategasprices.com. Just enter your Zip code and get an idea of how gas stations in the area rate in terms of price. Not only does the Web site list the lowest prices in the state--that distinction goes to a pair of Brewster stations, $2.31 a gallon--but it also lists the highest. And as an affirmation to local residents who feel more than a little pinched at the pump: Three of the top 14 stations reported as having high prices come from Ithaca.

Corning gets diesel boost; Twin Tiers' largest employer has major new customer for devices (Larry Wilson/Elmira Star-Gazette)

Corning Inc. has landed a major new customer for its diesel pollution control products.

The Twin Tiers' largest employer said Wednesday it signed a long-term agreement to supply products to Cummins Emission Solutions. The Corning filters and other ceramic devices will be installed on medium- and heavy-duty 2007 model Cummins engines for 2007 model trucks.

"This announcement represents a significant milestone for Corning and reinforces our position as a leader in heavy-duty emission control solutions," said Thomas R. Hinman, general manager of Corning Diesel Technologies.

Corning said the multiyear agreement--it did not specify how long it runs--will help Cummins meet new federal diesel pollution standards that take effect Jan. 1.

The Cummins deal is good news for Corning's Diesel Technologies plant in the town of Erwin, where the products will be manufactured. Corning Inc. has invested $365 million in the highly automated factory, which began production in 2004.

Power line case gets technical; hearing on planned NYRI project delves into legalisms over railroad rights of way (Glenn Coin/Syracuse Post-Standard)

A state judge cautioned the 50 people sitting in a Utica courtroom Wednesday they were about to hear "really technical arguments" in a controversial power line case.

Lawyers didn't disappoint.

In an hour-long hearing on whether a judge could stop power line developers from using railroad rights of way, lawyers tossed out terms like "ripeness doctrine" and "exclusive jurisdiction."

The hearing in Utica centered on the city's lawsuit trying to stop New York Regional Interconnect from using a half-mile of railroad right of way to build power towers. The city maintains that the towers would violate local ordinances and a 24-year-old agreement between Oneida County and the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad.

Lawyers for NYRI and the railroad argued that the judge can't make a ruling now anyway because it's too early in the state approval process. In legal parlance, that means the case is not "ripe" for a judge to hear and decide on it.

State Supreme Court Justice James Tormey didn't make a ruling, and he didn't say when he might.